2025 for Korean cinema was a year marked by much concern about its future. Indeed, the figures reveal an industry that has significantly contracted. There were hopes in the wake of Covid-19 that it could stage a recovery but it’s now clear as we enter the second half of the decade that the industry is in a different era amidst a significant change in viewing habits. 

Total admissions for 2025 were 106.09 million that was a 14 percent decline year-on-year. Compared to 2019, this marked a 53 percent drop. Local market share for Korean films was 41.1 percent. In the top five films, there was only one Korean film: My Daughter is a Zombie (2025). 

<My Daughter is a Zombie>

There were doubts whether total admissions would even hit 100 million, but it was able to cross it owing to the success of two Hollywood films: Zootopia 2 (2025) and Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025) highlighting the appeal of animation (Demon Slayer (2025) and Chainsaw the Movie (2025) also performed strongly) and Hollywood spectacle (F1 (2025) was a hit with Korean audiences playing for weeks).

The Korean film industry once reliant on its own tentpoles to attract the crowds during the peak seasons have largely disappeared due to audience fatigue and the lack of financing. Investment along with talent have been lured over to streaming platforms.

Cannes also saw no Korean features in its lineup, while the phenomenal success of KPop Demon Hunters (2025) illustrated how the tables have turned with Netflix and US streaming platforms now in the driving seat.

News of the Netflix bid to purchase Warner Bros. has also sparked uncertainty about what this means for Korean content and theatrical windows globally.

Still, there were and continue to be glimmers of hope. Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice (2025) premiered at the Venice Film Festival to much acclaim and broke even before it hit cinemas due to international sales underscoring how important the global market has become for Korean cinema.

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Moreover, Yoon Ga-eun’s The World of Us (2025) has sold over 190,000 tickets in a further sign that independent Korean films remain a draw for audiences. This comes after Korean independent and art films hit a 10-year high reaching 23.7 billion won in 2024. 

Korean cinema has often flourished with low-to-mid sized budget films. This is where Korea’s renowned auteurs experimented and as the industry looks to be able to compete with streaming platforms it might have to return to where it all began. 

Melodramas are once again attracting young people as seen with Once We Were Us (2025) and Even if this Love Disappears from the World Tonight (2025) that have now collectively sold more than one million tickets. This echoes a trend in the 1990s and 2000s (Christmas in August (1998), A Moment to Remember (2004).

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Yeon Sang-ho’s low budget The Ugly was a hit pulling in more than a million viewers as it was further evidence how audiences are not tired of Korean content in the cinema, but they are being more selective. This week we take a look at some of the upcoming titles and what they could mean for the industry moving forward. 

Korea’s Auteurs Lead 2026 Lineup – Ryoo Seung-wan, Na Hong-jin, Kim Jee-woon & Lee Chang-dong

This year there are several highly anticipated projects led by some of Korea’s auteurs who have been able to attract a strong following overseas as the industry pivots towards international territories to help offset the decline in the domestic market.

First up is Ryoo Seung-wan’s espionage thriller Humint (2026) that is released in Korea on February 11 ahead of the lunar new year holiday. The title refers to intelligence gathering through people (i.e. human intelligence) and follows South Korean and North Korean spies and officials tracking down criminal activities in Vladivostok. It stars Zo In-sung, Park Jeong-min, Park Hae-joon and Shin Se-kyung. 

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This new title comes 13 years after Ryoo’s action film The Berlin File (2013) that also focused on North and South Korean characters but was set in Berlin. The film also hit screens before the lunar new year.

Ryoo is one of Korea’s leading action filmmakers and often collaborates with the veteran stunt choreographer Jung Doo-hong. Ryoo’s credits include The City of Violence (2006), Veteran (2015) and his most recent film was its sequel I, the Executioner (2024) that premiered in Cannes in the Midnight Screenings section. 

Na Hong-jin, a regular in Cannes who has been invited there for three of his films (The Chaser (2008), The Yellow Sea (2010) and The Wailing (2016) is also returning with a new film this year. His fourth feature Hope (2026) featuring an international cast (Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender join Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung) is scheduled to hit screens this summer. 

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The film financed and distributed by Plus M is set near the Demilitarized Zone and centers on a mystery concerning a tiger that is spotted throwing a community into chaos. It was shot in Korea as well as in the Retezat National Park in Romania. 

Kim Jee-woon’s The Hole, an international co-production between Korea and the US, could also come out this year having wrapped up shooting in 2025. It’s being produced by Kim’s Anthology studios, K. Period Media and Esmail Corp. Department M from the US. Amazon MGM’s Orion Pictures hold the Worldwide Distribution Rights. 

Starring Theo James, Jung Ho-yeon, Yeom Hye-ran and Christian Slater it’s based on the Korean bestseller of the same name by Pyun Hye-young. It centers on an American professor living in Korea, but his life is upended when he is involved in a car accident. 

Kim Jee-woon who made his debut in the late 1990s with The Quiet Family (1998) is no stranger to working on international projects having directed The Last Stand (2013) featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Apple TV series The Brain (2021). 

Turning now to Lee Chang-dong, when reports emerged last year that his next film Possible Love was a Netflix production it highlighted the degree to which the industry had changed. There were initial reports that it was an international co-production between France and South Korea but ultimately it was the streamer that came to finance it underscoring how investment outside of the streaming ecosystem has dried up. 

Nevertheless, news that a forthcoming Lee Chang-dong project going into production was exciting and Netflix’s accessibility will mean that global audiences will have a chance to be introduced to his new film, especially if it attracts awards attention that is possible in the post-Parasite era. 

Possible Love features talent who have collaborated with Lee Chang-dong before: Sol Kyung-gu (Peppermint Candy (1999), Oasis (2002)) and Jeon Do-yeon (Secret Sunshine (2007)) who will join Zo In-sung and Cho Yeo-jeong. Zo, in particular, will have a busy 2026 starring also in Humint, Hope.

<A Peppermint Candy>

The film revolves around the lives of two married couples as fractures begin to appear. It was co-written by Oh Jung-mi who worked with Lee on his previous film Burning (2018) that screened in Cannes to much acclaim scoring a record average of 3.8 on Screen International’s famous jury grid.  

Test for Industry with Yeon Sang-ho’s Two Films (Colony and Paradise Lost)

Yeon Sang-ho has worked with a whole range of budgets. He began his career with the independent gritty animations (The King of Pigs (2011), The Fake (2013)) and then made a name for himself with the Korean blockbuster Train to Busan (2016). He’s also made content with Netflix (Hellbound (2021-2024), Jung_E (2023) and continues to be one of the most prolific directors in the industry. 

This year he has potentially two new films out in cinemas with very different budgets providing what could be a test for the industry going forward. Colony is a studio tentpole in what Showbox describes as “the culmination of the Yeon Sang-ho universe, spanning from Train to Busan to Peninsula.” It’s set in a biotech facility during a zombie virus outbreak and stars Jun Ji-hyun, Ji Chang-wook, Koo Kyo-hwan and Shin Hyun-been.

His other film Paradise Lost (translated title) began production in December and attracted much interest for its budget of 500 million won ($346,603). The film starring Kim Hyun-joo and Bae Hyun-sung is about a mother whose son went missing and returns nine years later. It’s being financed by CJ ENM and is produced by Yeon’s production company Wowpoint. His ultra-low budget film The Ugly was filmed in just 13 days across three weeks.  

Tentpoles have proved far less successful than they used to be paving the way for more modest and even low budget fare which makes Yeon’s two upcoming projects particularly compelling. Does there still remain a market for “event films” when the right film comes along? Can Yeon replicate the success of The Ugly with Paradise Lost? These are some of the questions that could have wider significance for Korea’s film and content industry.

Female Directors – July Jung, Hong Eui-jeong 

While the industry is largely dominated by male auteurs, female filmmakers are continuing to make an impact as seen with Yoon Ga-eun’s The World of Love (2025) that was considered by many in the industry as one of the best Korean films of 2025. It was voted as the top film of last year by critics at Cine 21. Furthermore, three of the Korean films to break even in 2024 were by female directors (Kim Han-gyul’s Pilot (2024), Park Young-ju’s Citizen of a Kind (2024), Kim Se-hwi’s Following (2024).

<The World of Love>

This year, there are a number of female directors with new projects including July Jung’s Dora that is in post-production and Hong Eui-jeong’s Revenge Ghost (translated title) that began shooting in November. 

July Jung’s feature debut A Girl at My Door (2014) premiered in Un Certain Regard in Cannes and her sophomore feature Next Sohee (2022) screened in Critics’ Week in 2022. Her new film Dora that secured investment from France will likely be in consideration for Cannes again this year. The film takes its title from the pseudonym that Sigmund Freud gave to a patient he diagnosed with hysteria in 1900 in what became known as the Dora Case Study. In the film, it follows a young woman (Kim Do-yeon) who suffers from physical and emotional pain and finds healing through meeting another woman played by Japanese actress Sakura Ando. 

Hong Eui-jeong won Best New Director at the Blue Dragon Awards for her first feature Voice of Silence (2020) and it screened at festivals including Fantasia where it won the Cheval Noir Award for Best Feature. Revenge Ghost mixing comedy, fantasy and horror stars Cho Yeo-jeong and Kim You-jung. The film’s story centers on a woman (Kim You-jung) who becomes a ghost following an accident and sets out with a goblin (Park Ji-hwan) to rescue her younger brother.

Other Films 

Despite all the doom and gloom in the industry there are evidently many projects to look out for in what could mark a turnaround for the industry. These are only some of the films that scheduled for 2026 with other titles also expected to come out this year. These include Hur Jin-ho’s Assassins about the assassination attempt on Park Chung-hee in 1974, Choi Kook-hee’s Tazza: The Song of Beelzebub (aka Tazza 4), Lee Sang-yong’s English-language Pig Village starring Don Lee, and Jang Hun’s period drama Canvas of Blood starring Kim Nam-gil and Park Bo-gum. The sequel to JK Youn’s Ode to My Father will also begin shooting in February with a release planned for the second half of 2026.

Written by Jason Bechervaise

Edited by kofic