Korea's theaters staged a recovery in the first half of this year, with both attendance and revenue rising sharply on the strength of hits such as "The Man Who Lives with the King" and "Gunche." While last year's box-office successes were concentrated in the second half, this year has seen a string of popular films, including a "10-million movie," bringing a rare warm spell to theaters, analysts said.
According to the Korea Box Office Information System (KOBIS) on Saturday, a total of 217 films opened as of the end of June this year, a slight decrease from the same period last year (240 films), but attendance rose sharply. First-half attendance for Korean films reached about 37.369 million, a 74.9% surge from the same period last year (21,363,045). Revenue also increased 81.7%, from 203.7 billion won to 307.02 billion won.
Although the number of releases fell, films that succeeded in drawing crowds set the overall mood of the film market. In fact, in the first half of last year, only one film — "F1: The Movie" (5.21 million viewers) — surpassed 5 million viewers, and no film exceeded 10 million. This year, by contrast, director Jang Hang-jun's "The Man Who Lives with the King," which ranks second in box-office history among Korean releases, drew 16.9 million viewers, and "Gunche" followed by surpassing 5 million viewers.
However, the number of hits with more than 3 million viewers edged down from four in the first half of last year to three this year. Last year, "F1: The Movie" was followed by "Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning" (3.39 million), "Yadang" (3.37 million) and "Mickey 17" (3.01 million), which all crossed the 3-million mark. This year, "The Man Who Lives with the King," "Gunche" and "Salmokji" (3.24 million) surpassed 3 million viewers. While there was little difference in the number of mid- to upper-tier hits, the mega-hits carried the entire market.
Because last year had more hits in the second half than in the first, industry watchers note that the performance of this year's film market can only be judged after examining the trend through the second half. Looking at last year's annual box-office rankings, major hits all opened in the second half, including "Zootopia 2" (November) with 7.7 million viewers, "Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - Infinity Castle" (August) with 5.69 million viewers, and "Zombie Daughter" (July) with 5.63 million viewers.
The film industry is watching whether "Hope," set to open on the 15th, will sustain the recovering film market's momentum. "Hope" is director Na Hong-jin's first work in 10 years since "The Wailing" (2016), and it has generated buzz even before its release after being invited to the competition section of the 79th Cannes International Film Festival. Proven domestic actors such as Hwang Jung-min, Jo In-sung and Jung Ho-yeon are joined by Hollywood stars including Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander, and the film was pre-sold to about 200 countries before release, recovering about half of its net production costs early.
"Because investment sentiment for Korean films has been shrinking and many works have failed to open this year, the meaning riding on the success or failure of a talked-about film like 'Hope' will be considerable," an industry official said.
