Kwak Yeon-soo is a digital editor at The Korea Times creating, editing and curating digital content for the newspaper’s website, mobile app and social media. She previously covered a diverse array of cultural, political and business topics.
Foreign films likely to dominate local box office in 2022
Actor Robert Pattinson in a scene from “The Batman” / Courtesy of Warner Bros. Korea
By Kwak Yeon-soo
By Kwak Yeon-soo
Korean films' share of the box office has plunged to its lowest in 11 years. The future looks bleak as distributors are still holding back new releases. Instead, foreign films are likely to take the lead in the faltering market.
According to a recent survey by the Korean Film Council, the market share of Korean films at the box office fell to 30.1 percent in 2021. This broke the 10-year streak of local films' dominating box office receipts. By contrast, U.S. films gained a 61 percent market share in admissions thanks to “Spider-Man: No Way Home” which grossed over $58.4 million as of January.
In terms of box office sales, domestic films held a market share of 29.7 percent while foreign films accounted for 70.3 percent. The ticket sales figure was down 73 percent compared to 2019, the busiest year on record for the box office in Korea.
However, the future doesn't seem promising as the release dates for some 70 Korean films, including big-name blockbusters like action thriller “Emergency Declaration” and musical film “Hero,” have been indefinitely postponed.
Starting with “The Batman” and “Morbius” in March, a string of Hollywood films are poised to hit local theaters.
They include “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” to be released in April and “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” in May. They will then be followed by the release of “Thor: Love and Thunder,” “Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever” and “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” scheduled for the second half of 2022.