Yeon Sang-ho built his international name on scale: a zombie outbreak sealed inside a high-speed train, then a whole ruined peninsula. His new film runs the other way. Paradise Lost was shot on a shoestring with a small, loyal crew, and before it has opened in a single Korean cinema, its overseas sales have already covered what it cost to make.

As Deadline first reported, CJ ENM has sold the psychological thriller across more than a hundred territories, with Twin taking Japan, The Jokers Films taking France and Well Go USA taking North America. The company says the film’s international sales revenue has now exceeded its net production budget.

The full count is 118 countries. Taiwan went to Long Shong, Singapore to Shaw, Spain to Youplanet Pictures, Benelux to 18K Film, Mongolia to Content Distribution, the Philippines to Pioneer Films, the Middle East to Gulf Film and Cambodia to Westec Media, while Emphasis picked up inflight rights.

The threshold was low by design. Speaking to The Korea Times, Yeon said Paradise Lost was made for around 500 million won (about $374,000) with a crew of roughly 20, money that came from the success of his 220 million won indie The Ugly. “If ‘Paradise Lost’ doesn’t completely fail, I want to keep making low-budget projects like this,” he said. The story itself began as a three-page draft written by his mother.

Kim Hyun-joo, who previously worked with Yeon on Hellbound and Jung_E, plays So-young, a mother still grieving nine years after a bus carrying her son and other children to a camp vanished. She copes through an augmented-reality program that recreates the boy, until a grown-up Sun-woo, played by Bae Hyeon-seong, comes back alive and a stranger to her. CJ ENM credits that premise for the sales run: “The film combines a distinctive premise with a deeply felt exploration of family and motherhood. These universal emotions are resonating across cultures and generating strong interest in international markets.”

The film comes off sold-out screenings in Toronto’s Special Presentations and Busan’s Gala Presentation, and gets its US premiere in the Spotlight on Korea section of the Hawaii International Film Festival on November 1 and 4; HIFF runs October 21 through November 15. Presented by Wowpoint and CJ ENM, Paradise Lost opens in South Korea on October 21, 2026, followed by Taiwan on October 23, Singapore on November 5, North America and Vietnam on November 6 and Indonesia on November 13. It arrives the same year Yeon’s Colony premiered Out of Competition at Cannes.

The crew that made The Ugly came straight over to make this one, Yeon told Sports Kyunghyang, and he calls the low-budget slate a new toy. “I’ll play with it until it breaks,” he said. This one has paid for itself before its first Korean ticket is sold.