THE CLOSET Shuts in BIRDS OF PREY During Quiet Weekend

Theatrical revenue remained low in the midst of fears over the new 2019-nCoV coronavirus. This week’s admissions were down only a marginal 6%, however that was with a pair of major new titles, versus last week’s crop of holdovers. 1.04 million viewers made the...

THE MAN STANDING NEXT Repeats During Slow Weekend

The post-Lunar New Year weekend suffered a far steeper crash than usual this year due to fears over the spread of the 2019-nCoV coronavirus, which has so far infected 15 people in South Korea. Admission were down 70% to 1.11 million and local holdovers largely...

ASHFALL Scores 3rd Weekend Win

The first weekend of 2020 was dominated by titles from the end of last year, particularly local films which accounted for 67% of all sales. Overall, 1.87 million tickets were sold over the three-day period. Taking its third weekend crown was the local disaster...

ASHFALL Erupts in Powerful Opening

As a pair of major local titles entered the charts, business shot up 75% week-on-week as 3.6 million admissions were registered during the penultimate weekend of the year. Korean films improved greatly on the charts, with the local share rising from 7 to 84%. ...

FROZEN Leaves JUMANJI Out in the Cold

Business was down over 30% week-on-week as new titles failed to unseat the reigning champ on the charts. The mid-December weekend still managed to draw a healthy 2.14 million viewers, a figure that should rise considerably as we enter the end-of-year season wi...

TAKE POINT Fails to Take the Lead from AQUAMAN

A year of mixed fortunes at the box office ended on a down note as several titles failed to break through during a weak end-of-year period. Local titles struggled badly with only a 39% market share (compared to 90% this time last year) while admissions were do...

Battle of December, Three-Way Showdown

With a few presumed hits coming up short and lower-than-usual attendance at some points of the year, particularly early summer, a lot was banking on December to pick up the slack and close the year on a high note. The end-of-year period (late December and earl...

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...

ALONG WITH THE GODS Threatens to Rewrite Record Books

Admissions shot up almost 80% in the weekend before Christmas, which welcomed a new local blockbuster attempting to rewrite the record books. Out of the gargantuan 4.42 million tickets sold (a figure generally only seen in late July or early August), 81% were ...

Review of the first three quarters for 2016

After a few years of major growth at the beginning of the decade, the Korean box office has remained flat once again, with this year’s total to date staying at the same level as 2015. However, where gains have been made is in the local industry, which has chur...