Box office revenue and ticket sales in South Korean cinemas took diverging paths in 2018. And the hierarchy of distributors was shaken up.
Revenues increased by 3% from $1.56 billion (KRW 1.76 billion) in 2017 to $1.61 billion (KRW 1.81 billion) in 2018, according to data from the Korean Film Council’s KOBIS service. Admissions dropped from 220 million, to 216 million, still one of the highest per capita attendance rates in the world, given the country’s 51 million population.
Market share for Korean-produced films edged fractionally down from 52% in 2017 to 51% in 2018. Seven Hollywood films earned top ten places, up from three in 2017.
Several large-budget Korean films were produced and released, especially for the Chuseok holidays. But many of them are understood to have lost money.
Mid-budget films, such as “On Your Wedding Day,” “Intimate Strangers” and “Default”, performed relatively better. That trend is expected to be reflected in companies’ production and distribution strategies in 2019.
The number of new titles released jumped substantially, from 495 to 660, but only two films, “Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds” (released in December 2017) and “Along with the Gods: The Last 49 Days,” achieved 10 million admissions, the traditional mark of a mega-hit in Korea. “Days” earned $91.0 million from 12.3 million tickets, beating “Avengers: Infinity War,” which scored $88.6 million from 11.2 million admissions.
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With the success of its “Gods” series and “Mission: Impossible – Fallout,” the Paramount title that it distributed in Korea, Lotte Cultureworks became the top distributor of the year, beating traditional number one CJ Entertainment for the first time in 15 years. Lotte distributed 14 local and foreign films in the first 11 months of 2018 and held a share of 18%. Disney Korea, in second place, took 15.2%, with 10 releases. CJ managed 12.5% from 15 titles, and Next Entertainment World 9.8% with 19 titles. Showbox, which held second place in 2017, tumbled to ninth ranking among distributors with 5.2% from just 6 titles.