▲ Moviegoers visit cinema in Seoul in January 2024. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

 

 

SEOUL, Feb. 28 (Yonhap) -- The number of moviegoers who visited theaters last month fell short of 40% of pre-pandemic levels, according to data released by the Korean Film Council on the 28th.

 

According to the January report on the Korean film industry, the audience last month reached 7.75 million, which is only 36.2% of the average in January from 2017 to 2019 before the pandemic, which was 21.44 million.

 

Last month's box office revenue was 74.7 billion won, which is 42.8% of the pre-pandemic level of 174.3 billion won.

 

Compared to the same month last year, the number of moviegoers decreased by 3.5 million, and the box office revenue decreased by 49.4 billion won.

 

The Korea Film Council analyzed that there was no Korean film that could follow the success of 'Seoul's Spring', which heated up the theaters at the end of last year, and foreign films such as 'Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom' and 'Wish' did not meet expectations.

 

In particular, the underperformance of foreign films contrasts with the success of 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' and 'The First Slam Dunk' in January last year.

 

Last month, the box office revenue of Korean films was 45 billion won, which was similar to the same month last year (44.9 billion won), but the box office revenue of foreign films decreased significantly to 29.7 billion won from 79.1 billion won in the same month last year. The market share of Korean films' box office revenue last month was 60.3%.

 

Against the overall slump in commercial films, art films such as 'Monster', ‘Fallen Leaves', and ‘The Old Oak' performed well. 'Monster', directed by Japan's Hirokazu Koreeda, attracted over 100,000 viewers in just last month.

 

 

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