Korean films off to promising start in 2011

"Detective K: Secret of Virtous Widow," "The Last Godfather" and "Glove" [Showbox/CJ Entertainment]

Korean films have taken off to a promising start in the first quarter of the 2011, showing a hike in admissions compared to the same period last year, according to data by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC).

Between January and March this year, Korean films drew in close to a total 19.3 million viewers, a 13.8 percent jump (counting to 2.3 million viewers) from the first quarter of 2010, KOFIC's official quarterly report released on Wednesday indicated.

This amounts to sales of nearly 142.6 billion won, up 15.1 percent from last year's approximate of 123.1 billion won during the same three-month period.

Korean movies also grabbed 56.3 percent of the market share on the local box office, boosted by the success of domestic hits which held the majority of slots in the top ten list for the most-watched films in the country during the first quarter of this year.

A total of seven local films made the ranking including "Detective K: Secret of Virtuous Widow,” "The Last Godfather," "Glove," "Children…,” in first, second, third and fourth place, respectively, and followed by "Battlefield Heroes" and "Hello Ghost" at No. 7 and 8, respectively, and "Late Blossom" at ninth place.

On the other hand, a total of about 14.3 million moviegoers watched foreign films from January to March, a drop of 29.5 percent compared to the last year when admits stood around 21.2 million.

"Gulliver's Travels" led foreign films at No. 5 on the top ten list with 1.8 million audience members, followed by "Black Swan" in the No. 8 spot with 1.6 million admits and rounding out the top ten was "World Invasion: Battle of Los Angeles" with 1.2 million tickets sold.

Meanwhile, despite the improved performance of Korean films, the overall market contracted by 12.6 percent during the first quarter of the year after logging sales of roughly 267.3 billion won, in comparison to last year’s total of 306 billion won.

James Cameron's 3D pic "Avatar" alone had clocked in over 13.3 million admissions last year, becoming the most-watched film in Korean box office history as well as the highest-grossing film all-time worldwide.

KOFIC expects that the slew of upcoming Hollywood features including "Kung Fu Panda 2," "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" and "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," set to open in local theaters during the second quarter, will further expand the film market.

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Reporter : Lucia Hong luciahong@
Editor : Jessica Kim jesskim@