South Korea’s box office continued its “Avatar”-driven strong run into a fourth weekend, with total grossings of over $15 million during the first normal Friday through Sunday of the New Year.
“Avatar: The Way of Water” remained at the top spot it has held since its release in mid-December. But there were good shows for local holdall Hero and new release The First Slam Dunk.
“Avatar 2” grossed $6.42 million in its fourth release weekend, according to data from Kobis, the Korean Film Council’s (Kofic) tracking service. That was a 51% weekend-to-weekend decline after two previous weekends when the film had been extremely strong and benefited from the Christmas and New Year holidays. Since its release on December 14, 2022, the title has grossed $87.8 million. Its market share fell to 42% over the weekend, falling below half for the first time since its debut.
“Hero,” a historical drama depicting Korean anti-Japanese activists in occupied Manchuria, maintained the second spot since its December 21 release. It earned $2.62 million on its third weekend of release and achieved a 16.8% share market share. Directed by enduring hitmaker JK Youn, the film now has a running gross of $17.5 million.
Japanese animated film The First Slam Dunk was the weekend’s highest entrant. It earned $2.61 million over the weekend and had a 16.7% market share. In the five days since its debut on Wednesday, it has made $3.49 million.
Two more releases followed. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish opened at $1.69 million over the weekend and $2.40 for the first five days. The Korean-made “Switch” earned $1.10 million over the weekend and $1.78 million over five days.
The Japanese track “Even if This Love Disappears From the World Tonight” continued its chart run despite being released on November 30, 2022. He earned $459,000 in sixth place for a total of $6.53 million built up over seven weekends.
“The Night Owl,” which topped the Korean charts for three weekends prior to the release of “Avatar 2,” placed seventh with a weekend score of $151,000. After seven weekends from release, it has a total value of $26.0 million.
Shinbi’s Haunted House: The Dimensions Ghost and the Seven Worlds added $132,000 over its fourth weekend for a total of $3.14 million.
The Korean-made Gentleman quickly slipped from a third-place start a week earlier to ninth place. Revenue plummeted 90% as it required $84,000 for a 12-day total of $1.62 million.
Tenth place went to George Miller’s “Three Thousand Years of Longing,” which grossed $52,000 between Friday and Sunday and $99,000 over the first five days.
The nationwide weekend total weighed in at $15.6 million, a level barely seen between September and November but significantly surpassed during Avatar’s reign. It remains to be seen whether Korean audiences have rediscovered the cinematic habit.
The annual box office in 2022 rose 96% to KRW 1.16 trillion, compared to a disastrous 2021 (and a slightly worse 2020). The market share for Korean films returned to more than half at 56%, restoring the normality that had prevailed for a decade until the outbreak of COVID in 2021. In terms of visitor numbers, the year-on-year increase was 87% (from 60.5 million in 2021 to 60.5 million in 2021). 113 million in 2022), showing the impact of slightly higher ticket prices.
But the Korean box office recovery over the last year has not been consistent. After a summer release spree, revenue plummeted in the fall months. Commentators have pointed to a weak supply of new titles, but also growing competition for consumers’ time and wallets, particularly from the country’s highly competitive streaming video sector.
And while 2022 was an improvement over the previous two years, gross box office earnings fell 39% behind 2019, when total box office receipts were KRW 1.91 trillion and Korea was the world’s fourth-biggest box office market.
The strength of the US dollar versus the Korean won is also eroding the global value of the Korean cinema market. Using year-end conversion rates for each year, the size of the Korean cinema market, expressed in dollars, was US$1.65 billion in 2019, US$496 million in 2020, US$492 million in 2021 and US$922 million US dollars in 2022 – the latter corresponds to a deficit of 45% compared to 2019.
When it comes to moviegoers, the contrast between the pre-COVID era and Korea’s present is also stark, with total admissions in 2022 accounting for just 49% of 2019’s 227 million.