Cinemas in South Korea are set to document their lowest attendance figures in additional than twenty years after a lacklustre first half of the yr.
A complete of 40.73 million individuals had attended theatres within the nation by means of June 22, in accordance with knowledge launched by the Korean Movie Council, with projections of round 42 million by the tip of the month. That is 33% down on the 62.93 million recorded for the primary half of 2024 and would mark the bottom H1 efficiency since 2004, when 21.82 million tickets had been bought.
This excludes the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021. However even in 2022, because the business labored to get well from closures as a consequence of Covid-19, some 44.92 million individuals visited theatres within the first half of that yr.
It might additionally imply this yr’s attendance might fall beneath 100 million, which the business has remained above since 2005, and would mark a major drop on the 123.12 million recorded in 2024. Figures peaked in 2019 with admissions reaching 226.67 million.
The largest titles on the South Korean field workplace to date this yr have been native characteristic Yadang: The Snitch, which recorded 3.37 million attendees following its launch on April 16, and Hollywood blockbuster Mission: Unimaginable – The Last Reckoning, which has clocked up 3.31 million admissions because it opened on Might 17.
Neither would have ranked greater than seventh final yr, which was led by native horror Exhuma on 11.91 million admissions, The Roundup: Punishment on 11.5 million and US animation Inside Out 2 with 8.8 million.
Bong Joon Ho’s Mickey 17 additionally disenchanted on the filmmaker’s residence turf this yr. The US manufacturing bought 3 million tickets, a notable drop on the director’s earlier movie, Parasite, which recorded greater than 10 million admissions in 2019.
The newest figures had been first reported by Korean newspaper Hankook Ilbo, which famous that the variety of screens within the nation has greater than doubled from 1,648 in 2005 to three,296 as of 2024.
It additionally stated that specialists equated the downturn to a mix of things together with the rise of streaming platforms and ongoing financial stagnation following the short-lived martial legislation imposition final December.
The continued stoop might proceed into subsequent yr, because the backlog of delayed releases in the course of the pandemic has been exhausted – the final being current launch Hello-5 – and new productions have declined sharply.
Hope of a rebound on the field workplace is pinned on later this summer time with native releases Omniscient Reader, My Daughter Is a Zombie and Fairly Loopy alongside US tentpoles Jurassic World Rebirth, Superman and The Improbable 4: First Steps.
From mid-July, individuals might also obtain as much as two rounds of “residing value aid” vouchers and 4.5 million cinema low cost coupons price $19.6m (KRW27.1bn), topic to authorities approval. Every particular person might use as much as 4 coupons, with a KRW6,000 low cost per ticket.
This, together with main releases equivalent to Avatar: Far And Ash later within the yr, are hoped to push the annual determine above the symbolic 100 million mark.
