Total Attendance in August has declined for the Third Year Straight Since 2015
The number of attendees and the total sales in August 2017 were 29.88 million and USD 206.5 million respectively. According to the August 2017 report on the Korean film industry by the
Korean Film Council (KOFIC), attendance figures for August have declined for the third straight year from a high in 2015. The total number of viewers decreased by 60,000 for a contraction of 0.2% while total sales fell by 1.5% with a reduction of USD 3.3 million from the same time last year.
In terms of market share, domestic and foreign movies took a 71.5% and a 28.5%, respectively. The number of viewers watching domestic films in August was 21.38 million which was an 830,000 and 4.0% increase from the same time last year. Ticket sales, totaling USD 148.2 million, were up USD 4.2 million and 3.0% compared to the previous year. On the contrary, the number of spectators watching foreign films was 8.5 million, down 890,000 and 9.5% from a year ago. The ticket sales for foreign films were USD 58.4 million, an 11.4% decrease of USD 7.5 million compared to last year.
In August, democracy movement drama
A Taxi Driver drew 11.54 million viewers topping the box office nationwide on its way to becoming the first local movie of 2017 to surpass 10 million viewers. The second best performer was youth action-comedy
Midnight Runners, which attracted and audience of 5.07 million. In third place was escape film
The Battleship Island which brought in 2.04 million attendees. Fourth and fifth place were occupied by primate blockbuster
War for the Planet of the Apes with 2 million moviegoers, and possessed-doll horror
Annabelle: Creation with 1.92 million spectators.
The best performing distributor was
Showbox which released two films including
A Taxi Driver, and recording a 38.6% market share. Second place went to
Lotte Entertainment holding a 17.0% market share for distributing
Midnight Runners in addition to two other films while
Warner Bros. Korea finished in third place with a 12.0% market share releasing three films including
Annabelle: Creation.