Neon to Launch Na Hong-jin's 'Hope' with Premium-Format Screenings Across 175 Theatres on Sept. 7
Neon will stage large-format screenings of Na Hong-jin's creature feature Hope on 7 September at 175 premium locations across the United States, two days ahead of the film's wide release on 9 September (The Hollywood Reporter).
The advance event starts at 6:30 p.m. and spans six premium formats: Dolby Cinema, 4DX, ScreenX, Barco HDR, D-Box and Dolby Atmos. Theatres in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas and other cities are confirmed for the rollout.
The strategy mirrors Neon's 2024 handling of Osgood Perkins' The Monkey, which used advance premium-format screenings to build word of mouth before grossing $40 million at the domestic box office — domestic meaning the United States and Canada. Hope arrives with stronger momentum: it opened in South Korea on 15 July and has earned $35 million, making it the country's third-biggest domestic release of the year.
For Korean cinema, the film's commercial reach is already unusual. Plus M, the main backer and sales agent, pre-sold Hope to roughly 200 territories out of Cannes — a record for a Korean film — with deals reportedly recouping nearly half of the net production budget before the film reached any wide audience. Pre-selling, in this context, means licensing distribution rights to international buyers in advance, which lets producers recover costs before a single ticket is sold.
Hope is Na Hong-jin's first feature in roughly a decade, following the crime thrillers The Chaser and The Yellow Sea and the 2016 horror hit The Wailing. Set in the fictional border town of Hope Harbor near the Korean Demilitarized Zone, the film follows police chief Bum-seok, played by Hwang Jung-min, and his deputy Sung-ae, played by Hoyeon of Squid Game, as they hunt a mystery creature rampaging through their village. A band of local hunters led by Sung-ki, played by Zo In-sung, joins the chase and tracks the beast into a nearby forest — only to become its prey.
The supporting cast includes Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, Taylor Russell and Cameron Britton. Behind the camera, the cinematographer is Hong Kyung-pyo, who shot Na's The Wailing and also lensed Bong Joon Ho's Parasite and Lee Chang-dong's Burning. The score is by Michael Abels, the composer behind Jordan Peele's Get Out and Nope.
Hope premiered in competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival on 17 May. Neon acquired North American and English-speaking territory rights ahead of that premiere and will directly release the film in UK and Irish cinemas, in partnership with Plus M and Forged Films (Screen Daily).
The Hollywood Reporter's chief film critic has described Hope as a "rip-roaring sci-fi creature feature" with "instant cult classic written all over it." Whether that word-of-mouth translates into a Monkey-sized run at the North American box office is the question the 7 September screenings are designed to answer.
