The party continues for Korean movies as they head toward a new peak year with a series of box-office records.
The historical film "Gwanghae: the Man Who Became the King" starring "hallyu" star Lee Byung-hun surpassed the 10 million viewer mark Saturday, becoming the second local film this year to break that milestone.
Hallyu, or the Korean wave, refers to the popularity of Korean TV dramas, pop music and films abroad.
It is the first time two South Korean films have broken the 10 million audience member mark in their opening year. In Korea, films drawing 3 to 4 million movie-goers are considered a box-office success. Only five other local films have ever passed the 10 million mark.
"The Thieves," a heist movie about 10 Korean and Chinese thieves who plot to steal a diamond from a Macao casino, set a new all-time record earlier this month, drawing an audience of more than 13 million viewers.
Other leaders at the box office this year have been "Dancing Queen" (4.09 million), "Nameless Gangster" (4.68 million), "All About My Wife" (4.58 million), "Architecture 101" (4.1 million), "Deranged" (4.51 million) and "The Grand Heist" (4.91 million).
With those box-office hits, the local film industry is leaping toward another peak year, following 2006 when "The Host" by director Bong Joon-ho set the previous audience record.
After peaking at 60.4 percent in 2006 on the strength of "The Host," the audience occupancy rate of Korean films fell to 42.1 percent in 2008. The audience occupancy rate is the proportion of total audience members for all movies shown here.
The heyday of Korean films was widely anticipated to return the following year with the simultaneous success of "Haeundae" (11.45 million viewers) and "Take Off" (8.48 million viewers).
The yearly occupancy rate remained at a modest 48.8 percent, however, as Hollywood blockbuster "Avatar" dominated theaters at the end of the year. In 2010, the share declined again to 46.5 percent, making it one of the worst years for local movie sales.
The local film industry began to recover last year when "War of the Arrows" and "Sunny" made waves, attracting more than 7 million viewers each. Their box-office successes were followed by the popularity of such socially influential films as "Silenced" and "Wandeuk/Punch," both of which sold nearly 5 million tickets.
The success of this year's crop of Korean films is prompting the growth of the local movie market and the market share of Korean films jumped to 70.2 percent in August.
According to the official box-office tracker, the Korean Film Commission, 153 million tickets were sold by local cinemas as of late October, coming near to last year's tally of 159.7 million.
The commission expects the 2012 tally to reach some 180 million by year-end, up 12.6 percent from a year earlier, and the number of viewers of South Korean films to top 100 million.
The success of "Gwanghae" came even though it opened in September, normally an off-season for cinemas, setting a precedent that a well-made film can draw a big audience regardless of when it opens.
Few films that opened in September have been hits at the Korean box-office, with other exceptions thus far being "The War Of Flower" (6.84 million) and "Silenced" (4.66 million).
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