There is one question that has remained on the lips of everyone in the Korean film industry for the past three to four years – because everything hinges on the answer. That question is, when are audiences going to come back to theatres? In 2019, South Koreans bought more movie tickets per capita than any other nation on earth, and its theatrical market ranked as the world’s fifth largest. But whether due to the growth of streaming, or an increase in ticket prices, the pandemic ended up serving as a kind of reset for moviegoing in South Korea. Long after other industries have recovered and moved on from the pandemic, the Korean film industry has languished. In 2022, overall theatrical admissions were just 49.8% of 2019’s level. Now the numbers for 2023 are in, and they’re not much better, at 55.8% of 2019’s total. If we narrow our view to Korean cinema only, the improvement vanishes: Korean films sold fewer tickets in 2023 than they did in 2022.
This is a problem because in the boom years leading up to 2019, the industry had bulked up considerably. Compared to the past, the cost of producing films has soared, so that the average commercial film now costs over 10 billion won (US$7.5 million) before marketing costs. That used to be a level scaled only by the industry’s biggest blockbusters. Now, with the nation’s highly developed theatre chains struggling to draw crowds, the numbers no longer add up. With every passing month that audiences have stayed away from theatres, film companies have struggled to keep in business and the panic has continued to grow.
The mood of the industry seemed to hit rock bottom in the early part of 2023. Most commercial films opened and closed in theatres without leaving the slightest mark on public consciousness. Many who worked in the industry seemed ready to give up.
Yet by early 2024, a hint of optimism was returning. Mostly this was due to the emergence of two unexpected smash hits, one released in November and the other in February (more on these in a moment). But it also seemed that for the first time in a long while, ordinary citizens had started talking about cinema. Catching those two big films in the theater was more or less required for anyone who wished to keep up with current talking points. But there were also some hesitant signs that this interest was starting to give a lift to other releases as well.
A survey of the highs and lows of the past 12 months begins at the end of May 2023 with the release of The Roundup: No Way Out. The year to date had seen nothing but crushing box office disappointment, but observers had reason to hope that this film might be an exception. The third installment in a series that began with The Outlaws in 2017 (6.9 million admissions) and continued with The Roundup in 2022 (12.7 million admissions), The Roundup: No Way Out featured popular star Don Lee (aka Ma Dong-seok) in his most iconic role as a beefy police detective with a soft heart and an invincible fist. The runaway box office success of the previous film during one of the worst stretches of the pandemic had stunned the industry, and although it came as welcome news, it was also seen as sort of a one-off success, reflecting the appeal of this particular screen character rather than any broader recovery in the film industry. For the third film as well, a similar dynamic played out. Despite so-so reviews, The Roundup: No Way Out managed to pull in viewers and replicate the success of its predecessor, ending up with a very impressive 10.7 million admissions.
Producer-star Don Lee has responded to the success of this franchise by fast-tracking at least four more sequels in the coming years. And sure enough, April 2024 will see the release of the fourth installment, The Roundup: Punishment. With better reviews than the previous film, expectations are high that Don Lee will continue his track record of success, and audiences at the FEFF will also be able to watch the film in the same week as its release in South Korea.
With the arrival of summer – traditionally the busiest time of the year at the box office – local studios lined up four major releases in the hope of reviving the industry: director Ryoo Seung-wan’s 1970s-set crime drama Smugglers; big-budget space epic The Moon by director Kim Yong-hwa; post-apocalyptic drama Concrete Utopia by director Um Tae-hwa; and director Kim Seong-hun’s kidnapping thriller Ransomed, shot in the Middle East.
Although none of the four would approach 10 million admissions, the mark of a true blockbuster hit, a clear winner emerged in Ryoo Seung-wan’s Smugglers. Featuring the director’s signature blend of humor, action, and a keen sympathy for those left behind by society, the female-led Smugglers took in 5.1 million admissions, marking the second time in three years (after 2021’s Escape from Mogadishu) that a Ryoo Seung-wan-directed feature topped the summer box office.
Among the four there was a clear loser as well, with The Moon selling 500,000 tickets, a shockingly low number considering its stratospheric budget, advanced special effects and star cast. Poorly reviewed, with a plot that strained credulity while resorting often to melodrama and patriotic heart-tugging, there was nonetheless a sense that if this film had been released 10 years earlier, it might have found a sizeable audience. Ultimately, The Moon may be best remembered for demonstrating, in a particularly painful way, that Korean viewers’ tastes have evolved.
In contrast, the 3.9 million admissions recorded by Concrete Utopia – while perhaps not up to the expectations of distributor Lotte Entertainment – showed that viewers were open to engaging with challenging and even quite grim subject matter. Based on a premise that all of Seoul is destroyed in an apocalyptic, earthquake-like event, the film depicts the residents of the one apartment block in the city that remains standing.
The final film among the quartet of summer releases, Kim Seong-hun’s Ransomed is based on the real-life story of a Korean diplomat kidnapped in Beirut in 1986. Months after the Korean government has given up hope of finding him alive, he manages to telephone for help, leading to a complex, under-the-radar effort by a fellow diplomat to secure his release. Although the end result is gripping and engaging, Ransomed ended up drawing just over 1 million admissions. Moving into the autumn, which has traditionally been a strong season for Korean cinema, results were decidedly mixed. Some high-profile films such as the Cannes selection Cobweb opened in theatres but, despite the best efforts of distributors’ marketing campaigns, barely registered in the consciousness of audiences. On the other hand, a few mid-sized films such as the thriller Sleep (1.5 million admissions) and romantic comedies Love Reset (2.2 million admissions) and Honeysweet (1.4 million admissions), built up respectable totals over extended theatrical runs.
According to box office analysts, one difference in today’s viewing habits compared to before the pandemic is that viewers are waiting longer after a film’s release to visit the theatre. In the past, a significant percentage of a film’s total box office was earned in the first week. But these days, revenues are spread out over a longer number of weeks, meaning that word of mouth is more important than ever. That was certainly true of the mid-sized successes of the autumn.
Nonetheless, the sight of a few films barely breaking even was not enough to reassure a panicked industry. Thus we entered the month of November, which in most years is a kind of dumping ground for films that can’t secure a better spot in the calendar. But at long last, Korean cinema was in for an unexpected burst of good news.
12.12: The Day by veteran director Kim Sung-soo looks back on a particularly painful moment in contemporary Korean history: the night of December 12, 1979, when a group of army officers led by General Chun Doo-hwan carried out a brazen military coup. This would cut short a tentative movement towards democratic reforms in the aftermath of authoritarian president Park Chung-hee’s assassination, and re-establish the dictatorship beyond any doubt. Certainly not a feel-good story or something to stir nationalist pride, it didn’t seem like the sort of topic that would appeal either to younger viewers who had never experienced this era, or to older viewers for whom it would evoke unpleasant memories. Nonetheless, director Kim Sung-soo’s depiction of the event was so dramatic and heartrendingly tense that it became a box office sensation. Strong reviews and enthusiastic word of mouth kept the film at the top of the box office for many weeks, carrying it all the way to 13 million admissions.
12.12: The Day ranks as the biggest box office hit since the comedy Extreme Job from early 2019, but even more than the numbers, it was a reminder of how a single film could, under the right circumstances, burst into the national consciousness and spark discussion all across society. This was the type of dynamic that had fueled the growth of the Korean film industry over two decades, but it had been missing for the past five years.
This naturally raised a further question: did the success of this film mark the start of a broader recovery for Korean cinema, in which it might seize back some of the buzz it had lost to Netflix and other streaming services in recent years? The atmosphere was encouraging, but it seemed too soon to tell. The Christmas season – another time of year that traditionally features many big film releases – saw only a single big-budget Korean film open in theaters. Noryang: Deadly Sea marked the final installment of a trilogy about the life and military triumphs of beloved 16th-century admiral Yi Sun-sin. The original film, The Admiral: Roaring Currents from 2014 still holds Korea’s all-time box office record with an astounding 17.6 million admissions. A more recent follow-up, Hansan: Rising Dragon was released in summer 2022 and grossed a respectable 7.3 million admissions. In the end, Noryang sold 4.6 million tickets – a respectable score to be sure, but considerably less than the previous films, and not enough to cover the film’s lofty budget.
January saw the release of two very interesting films that experienced very contrasting fates. Alienoid: Return to the Future is part two of one of the most ambitious Korean films ever made. With a plot that involves aliens, time travel, and wuxia-style martial arts and sorcery, Alienoid part one opened in summer 2022 and struggled to build word of mouth, despite its many entertaining qualities. The second film brought the expansive story to a close, but hopes that viewers who had caught the first film at home might turn out in greater numbers for part two were ultimately dashed. The work nonetheless represents a significant achievement for Korean cinema that viewers will not want to miss. (Both Alienoid and Alienoid: Return to the Future will be screening at this year’s FEFF.)
In contrast, Citizen of a Kind is an example of a more modestly-shot work that managed to build a name for itself. Based on a true story of a woman who falls victim to a voice phishing scheme, then manages to track down the perpetrators, this story of grit and determination impressed viewers with its energy and dynamic storytelling. In this case too, an extended run in theaters led to a respectable 1.7 million tickets sold.
Then in February, lightning struck a second time. Exhuma is not the first commercial success for director Jang Jae-hyun, who scored hits with his debut The Priests as well as the 2018 film Svaha: The Sixth Finger. He’s an example of a director who has excelled in a certain genre, in this case the occult. But although Exhuma is also very much an occult movie, its reception in Korea has transcended genre. Partly due to the film’s second half, which introduces themes related to history and colonisation, Exhuma once again had all the nation talking. With a box office score of 11 million admissions, the industry could point to two massive hits in the space of just five months. Now, finally, is there cause for optimism in the Korean film industry? People who work in Korean cinema are famous for taking a critical, fatalistic view towards their own industry. And it’s certainly true that massive challenges remain before things can start to feel truly normal again. But for the first time in a long while, the whiff of spring has returned to the Korean film industry. Whether it can keep up the momentum will be the key question of 2024.