For three years, since 1999, when Shiri broke records, the battle for the Korean box office has been really tough. In Spring 2001, a Korean-produced film, Friends, became a new box office record, with over 8 million audience, shattering the records of Shiri and JSA, both of which drew about 6 million viewers each. In the Summer, another Korean film, Wild Beauty, supplanted Friends as Korea's top-grossing film with one million viewers in only six days. Surely there was competition. A Hollywood blockbuster, Planet of the Apes, premiered almost at the same time, but Wild Beauty beat it. And still to come is Musa: The Warrior, the most expensive film in Korean history in terms of production cost, which would be expected to outdo Wild Beauty soon. Stephen Short of Time Asia describes the Korean film industry as "Asia's cine-stud right now."