Julia Stoll
Research expert covering TV and video media
Cinemas in South Korea - statistics & facts
While 2019 saw quite a few records being broken in Korean cinemas, the COVID-19 pandemic caused the industry to come to an almost standstill in 2020. The decrease in both ticket sales and the supply of new films resulted in box office revenue dropping to 580 billion South Korean won, a roughly 70 percent decrease from 2019. There has been steady recovery since then. In 2023, about 47 percent of all box office revenue generated within the country was derived from the domestic movie productions, bolstered by multiple popular action movie releases. Correspondingly, the highest-grossing movie that year was "12.12: The Day" with roughly 115.4 billion won in revenue.
