Number of cinema admissions in South Korea 2004-2021
In 2021, around 60.5 million movie tickets were sold in South Korea, a slight recovery from the record low of 59.5 million movie tickets sold in 2020. The box office revenue has also shown the beginning of recovery, with around 580 billion South Korean won in revenue.
A year of big hits
While 2019 had been a great year for South Korean cinema and movie theaters, with the beginning of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the industry was hit hard. Recovery began in 2021, and the industry continues to be centered around big blockbuster movies. The biggest movie of the year was "Spider-Man: No Way Home", despite having only been released in theaters mid-December of 2021. This was followed by the Korean action drama "Escape from Mogadishu" and the Marvel movie "Eternals". American productions accounted for over half of the box office revenue that year, while domestic moves contributed less than a third. As of January 2022, "Extreme Job" was the highest grossing domestic movie ever to be shown in South Korea, while "Avatar" was the highest grossing foreign movie.
Cinemas and COVID-19
After the huge success in 2019, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) slowed ticket sales immensely. While the ticket sales revenue in January lay at around 143.7 billion won, one year later the sales revenue lay at only 15.8 billion won. The number of visitors went down from 16.8 million to just 1.8 million respectively. While regular cinemas are struggling, consumers find other ways to watch movies, for example by visiting drive-in cinemas or using online streaming services.
A year of big hits
While 2019 had been a great year for South Korean cinema and movie theaters, with the beginning of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the industry was hit hard. Recovery began in 2021, and the industry continues to be centered around big blockbuster movies. The biggest movie of the year was "Spider-Man: No Way Home", despite having only been released in theaters mid-December of 2021. This was followed by the Korean action drama "Escape from Mogadishu" and the Marvel movie "Eternals". American productions accounted for over half of the box office revenue that year, while domestic moves contributed less than a third. As of January 2022, "Extreme Job" was the highest grossing domestic movie ever to be shown in South Korea, while "Avatar" was the highest grossing foreign movie.
Cinemas and COVID-19
After the huge success in 2019, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) slowed ticket sales immensely. While the ticket sales revenue in January lay at around 143.7 billion won, one year later the sales revenue lay at only 15.8 billion won. The number of visitors went down from 16.8 million to just 1.8 million respectively. While regular cinemas are struggling, consumers find other ways to watch movies, for example by visiting drive-in cinemas or using online streaming services.
