KOFIC’s 2014 February Film Industry Report

NEWS & REPORTS
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KOFIC News

KOFIC News

NEWS & REPORTS

KOFIC’s 2014 February Film Industry Report

Mar 18, 2014

Writerby June KIM
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Total monthly theatre attendance for February was 18.54 million which was a 15% decrease from last year’s figures. Revenue also went down 12.2% to USD 138.7 million. Most of the films that did well in the box office in February were January releases. Of those titles, only Miss Granny and Frozen surpassed the one million admissions mark. It is without a doubt that having the Korean New Year (Seollal) in January instead of February this year impacted the numbers for the winter.

The market share for Korean films was 53.4% with 9.9 million admissions, and revenue reached USD 71.6 million. In the top ten box office titles, seven films were Korean with Miss Granny (5.26 million admissions) at the top with the most ticket sales. Other titles saw mediocre admissions records with Man In Love (880,000), Tabloid Truth (850,000), and Venus Talk (690,000).

Admissions for non-Korean films were 8.64 million, with revenue of USD 67.1 million. Frozen alone saw 5.05 million admissions and secured the second spot at the box office with 9.86 admissions in total. With its ongoing popularity, it became the first animation in Korea to reach ten million admissions on March 3rd.

If we look at the distribution companies, CJ Entertainment had the highest audience share with their released titles including Miss Granny, whereas Sony Pictures Releasing Walt Disney Studios (Korea) had two titles including Frozen and was in second place with an audience share of 32.5%.

Korean and American films hold 97.3% of total audience share, dominating the Korean film market

Out of the top 10 list, Korean films secured seven spots and American films took three. While the two industries have dominated the Korean film market for a long time, it is unfortunate to see an audience of just 1.4% for Japanese films and less than 1% for other nations.

Diversity in Film: Inside Llewyn Davis and Popular Re-runs

Inside Llewyn Davis received unexpected attention with 76,000 admissions as it lead the group of non-commercial films. The re-run of Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Dreamers (2003) attracted 11,000 to take fourth place in the diversity film category. Korean titles were not able to hit the top ten list in this section, although Intruders and My Place were 11th and 12th respectively.

TABLE 1: Top Ten Box Office (February, 2014)

Rank	Title	Distributor	Release	Country	Screens (#)	Revenue (100,000 USD)	Admissions (10,000)
1	Miss Granny	CJ Entertainment	2014-01-22	Korea	1,024	380	526
2	Frozen	Sony Pictures Releasing Walt Disney Studios (Korea) Inc.	2014-01-16	USA	973	412	505
3	RoboCop	Sony Pictures Releasing Walt Disney Studios (Korea) Inc.	2014-02-13	USA	627	71	95
4	Pompeii	Lotte Entertainment	2014-02-20	USA, Germany	562	66	89
5	Man In Love	NEW	2014-01-22	Korea	468	64	88
6	Tabloid Truth	CJ Entertainment	2014-02-20	Korea	560	63	85
7	Venus Talk	Lotte Entertainment	2014-02-13	Korea	591	51	69
8	Another Family	OAL	2014-02-06	Korea	192	32	46
9	The Attorney	NEW	2013-12-18	Korea	410	30	41
10	Hot Young Bloods	Lotte Entertainment	2014-01-22	Korea	409	26	36

* Source: http://www.kobis.or.kr/kobis/business/stat/offc/searchOfficDistTotList.do
* Number of screens are determined by taking the maximum number of screens activated during the first week of the film’s release

TABLE 2: Top Ten Box Office Diversity Films (February, 2014)

Rank	Title	Distributor	Release	Country	Screens (#)	Revenue (1,000 USD)	Admissions (1,000)
1	Inside Llewyn Davis	Bloomage	2014-01-29	USA	70	593	76
2	Blue Is the Warmest Color	PANCINEMA	2014-01-16	France	53	143	19
3	Like Father, Like Son	Twentieth Century Fox Korea	2013-12-19	Japan	31	101	13
4	The Dreamers	AUD	2005-03-25	France	23	83	11
5	The Great Passage	Daou Tech Inc.	2014-02-20	Japan	25	54	7
6	Only Lovers Left Alive	Challan	2014-01-09	UK	13	25	3
7	Museum Hours	Film JoseE	2014-01-23	Austria	8	17	2
8	Still Mine	SYcomad	2014-02-20	Canada	16	15	2
9	The Nun	Greennarae Media	2014-01-23	France	14	14	2
10	Cinema Paradiso	Pop Entertainment	1990-07-07	France	1	4	2