Korean movies thrive despite overall market slump in 2024

By Baek Byung-yeul

Last year's overall theater revenue and audience numbers saw a slight decrease from a year ago, but Korean films still showed strong performances with an increase of over 15 percent each, according to the Korean Film Council (KOFIC) on Tuesday.

The state-run agency, which aims to promote the Korean film industry, released its annual report on the 2024 film industry here and announced last year's total cinema revenue was 1.19 trillion won ($827.5 million), with a total audience of 123.13 million, down 5.3 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively, from the previous year.

"There have been expectations that audiences visiting movie theaters would gradually increase after the end of the pandemic, but data showed that the trend in theater revenue and audience numbers over the past three years has not escaped the range of around 1.2 trillion won and 120 million, respectively," KOFIC said.

However, Korean films performed well despite the stagnant film market. Last year's revenue from Korean films was 691 billion won, a 15.5 percent increase from 2023, and the number of moviegoers also rose 17.6 percent to 71.47 million.

The No. 1 box office hit in 2024 was "Exhuma," which recorded 115.2 billion won in revenue and 11.91 million viewers, followed by “The Roundup: Punishment," which earned 110.1 billion won in revenue with 11.5 million viewers.

"While foreign films were sluggish in 2024 due to the impact of the Hollywood (writers') strike, it is encouraging that Korean films achieved a meaningful level of revenue increase and profitability improvement, although they have not fully recovered compared to before the pandemic," KOFIC said.

Foreign films recorded 503.6 billion won in revenue, down 24 percent year-on-year, with 51.65 million viewers, down 19.8 percent from a year ago.

Another notable change in the film industry last year is the blurring of boundaries between peak and offseasons, KOFIC said.

"Exhuma" and "The Roundup: Punishment" were released between February and April, which had traditionally been known as the spring offseason for the film industry. Still, both films garnered huge success, showing that the seasonality of releases is weakening and the quality of the content itself is becoming more important.

In line with the changing film market, KOFIC also noted that distributors are increasingly adopting a strategy involving releasing films that cater to specific fandoms.

"Heartsping: Teenieping of Love," the movie version of the "Heartsping" kids animation series, which is popular among children, and "IM HERO," which featured trot singer Lim Young-woong's concert, each exceeded 10 billion won in revenue, demonstrating the effectiveness of fandom marketing.

The average ticket price, which exceeded 10,000 won for the first time in 2022, fell to 9,702 won in 2024, falling back to the 9,000 won range for the first time in three years. It is noted that the average ticket price decreased as the number of viewers using discount promotions increased.

In terms of the global industry, the Korean film market continues to demonstrate its strength with great interest from viewers, ranking eighth in the world in 2024 with 2.4 annual theater visits per person.