A Good Enough Year, but the Best Year for Korean Films

Box Office Report of 2016 After five years of consecutive growth, the Korean film industry remained healthy in 2016, though the half-decade streak of gains came to an end as the industry essentially remained flat. Admissions reached 217.02 million, which was d...

Review of the first three quarters for 2016

After a few years of major growth at the beginning of the decade, the Korean box office has remained flat once again, with this year’s total to date staying at the same level as 2015. However, where gains have been made is in the local industry, which has chur...

Korea Spellbound by DOCTOR STRANGE

Business was up 20% week-on-week as a new Marvel tentpole entered the marketplace while a local holdover proved resilient during its third week of release. Hollywood edged out local fare with a 66% share of the 2.65 million tickets sold over the weekend. Storm...

TUNNEL Scores 4th First Place Finish

Hollywood Claims Edge in Slow Weekend After six weeks of local dominance during Korea’s biggest moviegoing season, local films lost the majority market share for the first time as business cooled off significantly, yet with the Chuseok(Korean Thanksgiving Day...

INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE Invades Korea

Disappointing Start for THE TRUTH BENEATH A 20-year-in-the-making sequel topped the Korean box office to close out the first half of the year. The Hollywood title helped the US maintain their edge as American films accounted for almost 70% of sales, which tot...

THE JUNGLE BOOK Swings onto the Top

The back and forth tussle between local and foreign fare continues at the Korean box office as a large amount of new Hollywood tentpoles swung the market share back in their favor with US releases accounting for 73% of the marketplace during a very busy frame....

PARK Chan-wook Serves Up 1st Place with THE HANDMAIDEN

PARK Chan-wook’s new film The Handmaiden, his first film in Korea since 2009 and his third Cannes Competition invitee, opened in first place at the Korean box office, affording the Korean cineaste his biggest ever opening. The period thriller boosted the Korea...

20th Century Fox Posts One-Two Punch with X-MEN: APOCALYPSE, THE WAILING

Following the dominance of local title THE WAILING, which has had an unusually strong showing for a Korean film in May, a new Hollywood tentpole has reclaimed the top spot at the box office as it continued its massive global rollout. At the end of the hottest ...

THE WAILING Continues to Drown Out the Competition

After its remarkable debut last week, NA Hong-jin’s latest film THE WAILING, which debuted out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival on May 18th, continued to lord over the charts, largely contributing to a weekend where 2.33 million viewers bought ticket...

NA Hong-jin’s THE WAILING Howls in First Place

Massive Debut for Critically-Acclaimed Thriller A week after it received a rapturous response from Korean critics, NA Hong-jin’s latest film, the Cannes Out of Competition thriller THE WAILING, bowed to huge numbers this past weekend. The thriller helped keep...