Severe Slump in Korean Films in February... Audience and Revenue Hit All-Time Lows

Lowest Korean Market Share Since 2004 Observation
Japan's 'Slam Dunk' Tops Box Office with 16.8 Billion Won
Foreign Film Revenue Triples Compared to Previous Year

The number of viewers for Korean films in February hit the lowest record in 20 years, suffering from severe sluggishness.

According to the Korea Film Council's announcement on February 16 regarding the Korean film industry settlement for February 2023, the number of viewers for Korean films last month was 1.27 million, with a market share of 19.8%. This is at the 7.4% level of 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic and the lowest since the integrated computer network for movie ticket sales started operating in 2004.

[Photo by Yonhap News]

The Korea Film Council stated, "This year, the box office performance of Korean films released during the Lunar New Year holiday was poor, and with the release of a Marvel movie in mid-February, both the market share and audience share of Korean films reached their lowest."

The total number of moviegoers in February was 6.42 million, representing 28.8% of the 2019 figure. The box office revenue was 69.1 billion KRW, which remained at 36.3% of the 2019 level. It decreased by 42.9% (4.83 million) compared to the previous month but increased by 96.2% (3.15 million) compared to the same month last year.

While foreign films performed well, Korean films could not escape their slump. In February, the Japanese animation 'The First Slam Dunk' and the Marvel movie 'Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania' earned 16.8 billion KRW (1.65 million viewers) and 14.5 billion KRW (1.38 million viewers), respectively.

Foreign films' box office revenue was 55.6 billion KRW, down 29.7% (23.5 billion KRW) from the previous month but up 205.5% (37.4 billion KRW) compared to the same month last year. The number of foreign film viewers was 5.15 million, down 24.1% (1.64 million) from the previous month but up 171.8% (3.26 million) from the same month last year.

The number of Korean film viewers was 1.27 million, which is 7.4% of the 2019 level, down 71.5% (3.19 million) from the previous month and down 7.7% (110,000) from the same month last year. Korean films' box office revenue was 13.4 billion KRW, only 9.2% of February 2019. Revenue decreased by 70.1% (31.5 billion KRW) compared to the previous month but increased by 5.5% (700 million KRW) compared to the same month last year, showing a similar figure to the previous year.

The cumulative box office revenue for January and February was 193.1 billion KRW, which is 56.6% of the same period in 2019 and increased by 123.1% (106.6 billion KRW) compared to the same period last year. During this period, the cumulative box office revenue for Korean films was 58.4 billion KRW, up 67.8% (23.6 billion KRW) from the same period last year. The cumulative box office revenue for foreign films was 134.8 billion KRW, up 160.3% (83 billion KRW) from the same period last year, and the cumulative number of viewers was 11.94 million, up 123.6% (6.6 million) from the same period last year.

'The First Slam Dunk' attracted 1.65 million viewers in February and recorded the highest box office with 16.8 billion KRW. Since its release on January 4, it has gained popularity with a cumulative box office revenue of 37.4 billion KRW (3.64 million viewers) until last month.

Among Korean films, 'Count' ranked 5th with box office revenue of 2.6 billion KRW (270,000 viewers), which was the best performance.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.