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...

CAPTAIN MARVEL Brings an End to Hollywood Dry Spell

After months of local dominance Hollywood finally found a way to break through the ranks with Marvel’s latest tentpole Captain Marvel. Admissions were up 25% to 2.74 million while Hollywood controlled the charts with an 84% market share. Following a long dry s...

A RESISTANCE Defies Holdovers with 1st Place Debut

A new Korean title opened on top of the box office while local holdovers swept up much of the remaining business in a strong weekend that welcomed 2.22 million viewers to theaters. Admissions were on par with the previous week, though slightly inflated by the ...

SVAHA : THE SIXTH FINGER Points Its Way to First

Local titles continued to impress in the first quarter of 2019 as sales were down only slightly to 2.26 million while the market share for Korean films swelled to 79%. A Hollywood tentpole is sure to reverse that next month, but until then local holdovers look...

INNOCENT WITNESS Opens in 2nd, THE ODD FAMILY Trails in 5th

New well-received local content kept the domestic market share high at 67% while the Lunar New Year champion continued its assault on the record books as 2.44 million tickets were sold over the weekend. Finally slowing down in its fourth week, local comedy sma...

EXTREME JOB Defeats ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL Debut

The smash success of Extreme Job continued for a third week, which kept overall business roaring after the Lunar New Year holidays. Korean films claimed a strong 71% market share as over 3.07 million tickets were sold. Local comedy smash Extreme Job commanding...

HIT-AND-RUN SQUAD Fails to Catch EXTREME JOB

The local industry continued to impress in early 2019 as the pre-Lunar New Year holiday weekend welcomed massive audiences to theaters, largely favoring local titles. In all, 3.91 million tickets were shifted, of which 87% were for Korean films. After its stun...

EXTREME JOB Scores January Record

If the recent 2018 end-of-year season proved a disappointment, the Korean box office is showing no signs of trouble in January as a two local hits have been joined by an even bigger domestic smash success which just set a record for the month. 3.15 million tic...

MAL·MO·E and THE DUDE IN ME Repeat Up Top

A pair of local holdovers continued to dominate the charts and contributed to a strong 64% market share for domestic titles. Meanwhile, new entries were soft which caused admissions to drop 20% to 1.94 million. Retaining its first place rank was the period dra...