Korean Film Council (KOFIC) announced a report on 2016 Korean film industry on February 13th. According to the report, Korean film industry had USD 1.98 billion in sales last year which rose 7.6% from the year before, so its sales has surpassed USD 1.74 billion (KRW 2 trillion) for the third consecutive year.

Ticket sales in 2016 increased 1.6% year-on-year to USD 1.52 billion. However, the number of audiences last year was 217.02 million which decreased by 0.1% compared to that of the previous year. Although the number drop was slight, it was remarkable to show a decrease for the first time since 2010. This reflects that Korean film industry has reached market saturation and stepped into a stage of sluggish development. The total number of moviegoers for Korean films was 116.55 million (53.7% market share), up 3.2% from the year before, while that of moviegoers for foreign films was 100.47 million (46.3% market share) with 3.7% of year-on-year decrease.  

The digital online market has been growing in sales volume after its stagnation so far. It turned over USD 359 million, which is 23.2% more than 2015. Market growth was led by 28.3% of TV VOD sales and 16.7% of Internet VOD sales increases. 

Meanwhile, sales of local movies abroad in 2016 was USD 101.09 million with 82.1% rise from a year ago. Finished films amounted to USD 43.89 million, up 49.4% year-on-year, while the service sales was USD 57.2 million which is the most since 2011. These are mainly caused by the actual exports of major films like TRAIN TO BUSAN, VFX companies’ winning contracts of Chinese blockbusters and more filming on location in Korea.