Korean Theaters Sell 227 Million Tickets in Record Year

Korea’s film industry ended 2019 with a bang, as local disaster action-drama ASHFALL lorded over the charts at the tail end of a massive 12 months. It was a record-breaking year for the exhibition sector, which sold a record 226.68 million tickets, among sever...

THE LION KING Roars at the Korean Box Office

With the entry of yet another feverishly anticipated Disney title, the box office rose 10% in mid-July with 2.97 million tickets sold over the past weekend. Hollywood continued to be extremely dominant as the local market share was pushed all the way down to 3...

SPIDER-MAN Swings In With Huge Opening

Thanks to the first post-Endgame Marvel title, business shot up 40% week-on-week in Korea in midsummer to 4.11 million ticket sales. In the absence of fresh local fare, Hollywood gobbled up a sizeable 97% portion of the market. Spider-Man: Far From Home debute...

ALADDIN Returns to 1st Place in Week 6

New entries were unable to unseat the powerful Disney tentpoles at the box office during a weekend that saw a slight 10% decline in viewers, as 2.76 million tickets were snatched up over the three-day period. The local industry in particular was unable to comp...

TOY STORY and ALADDIN Give Disney 1-2 Punch at Korean Box Office

As the heat began to turn up with the Korean summer kicking into gear, theatres saw an almost 30% rise in admissions, with just over three million tickets sold over the past weekend. Despite a new local entry, the Korean market share was held down to just 28% ...

ALADDIN’s Wish Comes True Again in Week 4

A strong holdover rose back to first place during a quiet June weekend as new releases once again struggled, bringing overall business down another 30% to 2.34 million admissions. Choices were limited for viewers in theatres as the top three releases claimed 9...

PARASITE Maintains Its Hold on the Charts

As the media frenzy around Korea’s first ever Palme d’Or winner cooled down, so did the box office as business receded about 20% with 3.34 million tickets sold. The local market share also declined but maintained a razor thin 50.1% majority despite the presenc...

PARASITE Scores Record Opening for BONG Joon-ho

A media frenzy and national pride have set the May box office on fire, as admissions almost doubled to 4.04 million over the previous weekend, an unusually high number for this time of year. Moreover, the local share surged to 76%, despite the opening of a new...

ALADDIN’s Wish Granted with 1st Place Debut

Disney launched its latest tentpole while the Cannes effect kept a holdover hot on the charts. It was an even split between local and foreign films as admissions dipped slightly to 2.15 million admissions, a figure that should rise significantly this coming we...

An Unexpected Jackpot

Box Office Report of 2017 The Korean film market reached new all-time benchmarks for income and admissions in 2017 after a strong December rally. Yet the real story behind the numbers was which unexpected films got audiences the most excited while several seem...