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...

PARASITE Maintains Its Hold on the Charts

As the media frenzy around Korea’s first ever Palme d’Or winner cooled down, so did the box office as business receded about 20% with 3.34 million tickets sold. The local market share also declined but maintained a razor thin 50.1% majority despite the presenc...

Stranger Than Fiction: Politics & History Inspire Cinema

The Korean box office has had a rocky ride through the first two trimesters of 2017, but this period was not without its success stories. Though controversies and an uneven slate of films presented some obstacles, Korean history remained a strong driver for pr...

A TAXI DRIVER Rides Into 10 Million Viewer Club

Buckets of rain came down on Korea over the weekend but the stream of crowds heading to theaters remained unabated as admissions stood at a healthy 3.57 million. Korean films remained strong as a pair of dominant holdovers and some new releases contributed to ...

A TAXI DRIVER Fills Up 3rd Best Korean Opening of All Time

August kicked off with the biggest weekend of the year at the Korean box office this year, with new local offering A Taxi Driver entering the record books on top of several major holdovers. Korean films made up 79% of the 4.62 million tickets sold. JANG Hun’s ...

Box Office: March 21-April 3, 2013

A new Korean film sits atop the box office in the relatively quiet period of late March. Debut director ROH Deok’s Very Ordinary Couple, which is billed as a romantic comedy, but which might also be described simply as a relationship drama, made an impressive ...

Box Office: March 7-20, 2013

Box office figures as a whole have cooled down in recent weeks, as Korea enters what is traditionally an off season for moviegoing. Nonetheless there were still positive signs to be seen for local films. Topping the box office once again was the gangster epic...

Box Office: February 21-March 6, 2013

A new film emerged at the top of the box office in late February and early March, pushing box office phenomenon Miracle in Cell No. 7 back to #2. Gangster epic New World enjoyed a strong opening on February 21st thanks in part to its high-profile cast, and po...

Box office, September 1-15

In the first half of September, Korean cinema continued its recent run of strength at the box office, with local features accounting for six of the top eight grossing films. Heading the pack was <Traffickers>, a grisly thriller about organ trafficking th...

Box office, August 1-15

The first half of August was witness to a record-breaking performance by CHOI Dong-hoon’s The Thieves, which became the sixth Korean film in history to pass the 10 million admissions mark. Originally released on July 25, the film sold more than 6 million ticke...