Bong Joon-ho's The Host smashed Korea's all-time box office admissions record over theweekend, racing towards the record faster than any previous release.

The monster sci-fi filmsurpassed previous record-holder King AndThe Clown's 12.3 million admissions on Saturday afternoon (Sept 2) with12.37 million admissions, and it's estimated that a further 90,000 were addedon Sunday.

The Hosthas been leaping over other previous records set by Silmido and Taegukgi, andreached the 12.3 million mark in a record 38 days as opposed to sleeper hit King And The Clown's 112 days.

Released on 620 screens onJuly 27, The Host is now playing on areduced 280 screens, but still looks to keep clocking up admissions for thetime being. However, Japanese disaster film SinkingOf Japan has pushed the film out of its number one spot afterfive weeks on top, with 239,000 admissions over the weekend.

The Hostdid a $4.7m pre-sales and investment deal with Japan's Happinet Pictures lastyear at Hong Kong Filmart, and $2.3m in additional deals at Cannes withMagnolia for English-speaking territories (with Optimum distributing in the UK)and Ocean for France.

The film opened in Japan on 250 screens - coincidentally on the same day itbroke the Korean record - but weekend tallies are yet to be announced for thatterritory.

In Southeast Asia, The Hostwill have a staggered release starting in Thailand and Singapore (Sep 7), followed by Hong Kong (Sep 14) and Taiwan and Malaysia (Sep 15). Its set to open in France and Spain in November, with a US release scheduled for Feb 2007.

With talk of a Hollywood remake and additional overseas sales, The Host, made for $11m, is turning into a franchise - with dealsthat are projected to bring in over $10m for a computer game, a novel, a mangaand character dolls, among other properties.