Korean Films Lose Ground to Foreign Blockbusters at Local Box Office

Korean films are going through a box office slump, drawing fewer than 2 million viewers for three consecutive months.

The Korean Film Council said on Monday that Korean movies attracted 1.73 million viewers last month, accounting for 24.8 percent of total moviegoers.

While the number increased 97.4 percent on-year from 880,000, it was only 43.8 percent of the April average of 3.95 million from 2017 to 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic.

On the other hand, foreign films drew 5.24 million moviegoers in April, up 133.7 percent on-year from 2.24 million and equivalent to 58.7 percent of the pre-pandemic average of 8.92 million for the same month.

The top three box office hits last month were all foreign movies. The Japanese anime "Suzume" was the most successful film, earning W18.4 billion, followed by the Hollywood action thriller "John Wick: Chapter 4" with W16.6 billion and the American animated film "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" with W7.7 billion (US$1=W1,337).

Korean movies "Rebound" and "Dream" placed fourth (W6.2 billion) and fifth (W5.2 billion), respectively. Both are sports films based on true stories.

The KOFIC said, "People have become pickier about movies due to increased ticket prices, and as two Korean films with a similar subject were released at the same time, they failed to attract attention."