Korea has two major holidays. ‘Chuseok’ (Full Moon Day) and Lunar New Year Holiday. The two long holidays usually bring more people to theaters. In particular, family audiences increase during these seasons, giving way to touching human comedies, fast-paced entertaining films and feel-good movies to become big box office hits. Consecutive holidays usually call for the release of many new films, giving rise to fiercer competition in the box office race. Thus, there is a weak probability that a mega hit film will be born during these periods. But if a film takes an early strong lead, the film can perform much better than expected. Let’s review the box office performances during Lunar New Year Holiday over the past five years.

 

During Lunar New Year Holiday in 2010, Avatar’s box office run was overwhelming and explosive beyond comparison. At that time, Secret Reunion was its Korean competitor. Secret Reunion premiered ten days before Lunar New Year Holiday. The film had a heavy theme due to its story about the friendship between a former agent of South Korea’s National Information Agency and a North Korean agent dispatched to South Korea, and it drew audiences by appealing with its human drama. Secret Reunion surpassed two million admissions during the holiday and finally hit over 5.5 million viewers in total. Another well-received film was Harmony starring NA Moon-hee and KIM Yun-jin. Female prison inmates came to sing in unison, and this touching story was what audiences wanted to watch at theaters during the holiday. Later, Miracle in Cell No. 7 with a theme similar to that of Harmony performed successfully. This fact indicates that touching elements are vital to the success of films released during the holiday. 400,000 audiences took in Harmony during the holiday and it finally inked three million spectators in total. Le Grand Chef 2: Kimchi Battle released a little ahead of the holiday recorded a score which fell short of its prequel.

 

The most successful film at the box office during Lunar New Year Holiday of 2011 was Detective K: Secret of Virtuous Widow (hereafter Detective K 1). The film depicts an adventure of two Joseon period detectives played by KIM Myung-min and OH Dal-su who solve a mysterious murder case. At that time, the film was not highly anticipated since the media was spotlighting KANG Woo-suk’s Glove and Battlefield Heroes directed by LEE Joon-ik. However, the comedy directed by KIM Sok-yun who has rich experience in directing comedic sitcoms created synergies by meeting a mystery of Joseon Kingdom, chalking up 4.7 million audiences. During the holiday alone, 1.7 million audiences flocked to theaters to follow the detectives in the film. This record greatly contributed to scheduling the release of its sequel Detective K: Secret of the Lost Island during Lunar New Year Holiday of this year. Battlefield Heroes and Glove also drew over 800,000 and 500,000, respectively during the holiday which ran for five days from Wednesday to Sunday. But the two films’ run ended soon after.

 

In 2012, films of various genres hit theaters during the holidays. Two good examples were Unbowed starring AHN Sung-ki and PaceMaker starring KIM Myung-min. The first is based on a crossbow attack case which threw a serious question about common sense in Korean society. PaceMaker tells the story of a pacemaker for marathoners in quite a touching way. Dancing Queen employed a rather pleasant setting where the wife of a Seoul mayor trains herself to become a dance singer. The film proved to be a feel-good comedy for Lunar New Year Holiday. Never Ending Story starring UHM Tae-woong and JUNG Ryeo-won explores a definitive love of a terminally ill couple. Although the film is a romantic comedy, the director did not forget to place an element of a tearjerker in the film. Among them, Dancing Queen claimed first place in the box office race. The film attracted 630,000 audiences in its opening week and continued to perform well, crossing one million viewers during the holiday. Dancing Queen had cast Korea’s real dancing queen, UHM Jeong-hwa and her popularity was felt once again by surpassing four million viewers in total. Unbowed also drew more crowds than expected despite its rather serious genre of a legal thriller based on a true story. Word of mouth ignited a surge in the number of its screens, empowering the film to record 810,000 audiences in the holiday period alone. Unbowed finally recorded 3.4 million admissions in total, exemplifying that a film with a serious theme can enjoy a successful box office run in Lunar New Year Holiday.

 

In 2013, the holiday paved a way to a confrontation among top male Korean actors. KIM Yun-seok took the sole lead role in South Bound after proving his acting skills in The Chaser (2008), The Yellow Sea (2010) and The Thieves (2012). RYU Seung-ryong made headlines by playing a man with the intellectuals of a six-year-old boy in Miracle in Cell No. 7. The Berlin File starring HA Jung-woo, HAN Suk-kyu and RYOO Seung-bum proved its value as a blockbuster by living up to its ad copy. Miracle in Cell No. 7 and The Berlin File competed neck and neck while recording 190,000 and 160,000 admissions during the holiday. But surprisingly, the final and miraculous winner was Miracle in Cell No. 7. The attendance of The Berlin File plummeted after the holiday only to hit around two million admissions, similar to South Bound. But Miracle in Cell No. 7 sold over 12 million tickets, placing itself in fourth place at the all-time Korean box office standings in 2013. Among all Korean films, it came in third after The Host (2006) and The Thieves (2012).

 

The box office landscape of 2014 was close to that of 2011. The Disney animation Frozen successfully snagged the hearts of not only kids but adults, becoming a massive hit. Thus Korean films ran neck and neck to hold second place. Early in the race, the lead was taken by the family comedy Miss Granny, suitable for the holiday season. Taking into consideration the fact that Harmony starring NA Moon-hee scored big in 2010, it is now uncontested to define NA as one of the actresses who can sell during the holiday. Hot Young Bloods starring rising young stars LEE Jong-suk and PARK Bo-young targeted audiences with retro elements but flopped. Man in Love and The Huntresses came short of their targets as well. Miss Granny continued drawing crowds and finally arrived at over 8.6 million admissions in total, carrying the box office garland in the first half of 2014. The comedy was remade into a Korea-China co-production and crossed ten million viewers in total. Once again the film proved that elements of families, comedies and touching stories are borderless.

 

Reminding people of the success of its previous installment, Detective K: Secret of the Lost Island (hereafter Detective K 2) hit screens during Lunar New Year Holiday in 2015 and took over the top spot at the box office. Many expressed that the extended film’s comic and dramatic elements along with the characteristics of its genre fits perfectly with the tastes of the theatergoers during Lunar New Year Holiday. According to the Korean Film Council’s Integrated Ticket Sales Network, Detective K 2 brought in 1,934,186 audiences for the five day holiday from February 18th to the 22nd. In total, it is currently standing at 3,141,289. It has yet to reach the total number of ticket sales by its predecessor (4.78 million), but with Kingsman: The Secret Service running closely behind, it is still a successful performance. Another winner during the Lunar New Year is Ode to My Father. Not only did the film push Avatar down but it also took the 2nd place in the all-time box office top ten list. Another Korean title C’est Si Bon was in 5th place following The Imitation Game. 425,265 audiences went to the theaters to watch C’est Si Bon during the holidays and its cumulative count has reached 1.5 million. Kingsman: The Secret Service was able to sell 1.3 million tickets despite the fact that the film had restricted rating, proving that the New Year Holiday is not just for domestic films. The tastes of the filmgoers have become more diverse and wide.