Korean Films Struggle for Three Months... Foreign Films Recover 93% Compared to Pre-COVID Levels

Last Month's Sales 70.7 Billion KRW... 65.6% of Pre-Pandemic Level
Foreign Films Accumulated 247.1 Billion KRW from January to April

The number of viewers for Korean films remained in the 1 million range for three consecutive months, continuing to struggle in April as well.

According to the April 2023 Korean film industry report released by the Korean Film Council on the 15th, the total revenue was 70.7 billion KRW, a 132.4% increase compared to the same month last year. However, due to the poor performance of Korean films, it remained at 65.6% of the pre-COVID-19 pandemic revenue (107.8 billion KRW). The total number of viewers was 6.97 million, which is 54.2% of the total viewers in April from 2017 to 2019 (12.87 million).

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Before the pandemic, total revenue and audience numbers more than doubled compared to the previous year. In April, the Japanese animation 'Suzume no Tojimari' recorded revenue of 18.4 billion KRW (1.83 million viewers), and 'John Wick 4' earned 16.6 billion KRW (1.6 million viewers), resulting in total revenue increasing by 132.4% (40.3 billion KRW) and audience numbers by 123.5% (3.85 million viewers) compared to the same month last year.

Korean film revenue was 16.9 billion KRW, which is 53.1% of the 2017?2019 average (31.8 billion KRW), and the number of viewers was 1.73 million, only 43.8% of the average April audience from 2017 to 2019 (3.95 million), less than half.

The film 'Rebound,' released last month, ranked 4th in April box office with revenue of 6.2 billion KRW (650,000 viewers), and 'Dream,' ranked 5th, earned 5.2 billion KRW (540,000 viewers).

The Korean Film Council analyzed, "As film production personnel participate in the production of online video service (OTT) films, the competitiveness of OTT original content has strengthened. Also, Korean films released in theaters this year have failed to attract young audiences, resulting in Korean films' monthly audience numbers not exceeding 1 million for three consecutive months through April."

The top-grossing film in April was 'Suzume no Tojimari,' which recorded revenue of 18.4 billion KRW (1.83 million viewers). The film held the number one spot at the overall box office for two consecutive months and achieved cumulative revenue of 52.6 billion KRW (5.12 million viewers) by April, becoming the highest-grossing Japanese film ever released domestically.

From January to April, foreign films such as 'Avatar: The Way of Water,' 'Suzume no Tojimari,' and 'The First Slam Dunk' achieved cumulative revenue of 247.1 billion KRW (22.78 million viewers), representing 93.8% of the average for the same period from 2017 to 2019 (263.4 billion KRW). Japanese films recorded revenue of 113.3 billion KRW (10.85 million viewers) from January to April 2023.

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