Number of cinema admissions in South Korea 2004-2024

In 2024, around ***** million movie tickets were sold in South Korea, a significant recovery from the record low of **** million movie tickets sold in 2020. The box office revenue has also shown signs of recovery, with about *** trillion South Korean won in revenue. However, in both cases there was a decrease compared to the previous year.

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 mainly around big blockbuster movies. The biggest movie of the year was "Exhuma", a horror movie with mystery and occult elements. The most viewed foreign production was the Disney movie "Inside Out 2". American productions accounted for around ** percent of the box office revenue that year, while domestic moves contributed about half of the total revenue. As of June 2024, "Extreme Job" was the highest-grossing domestic movie ever to be shown in South Korea, while "Avatar: The Way of Water" 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 2020 stood at around ***** billion won, one year later the sales revenue was only at **** billion won. By December 2023 this had risen to ***** billion won, exceeding the January 2020 figure. The number of visitors went down from **** million to just *** million respectively, before recovering to around **** million in December of 2023. While regular cinemas were struggling, consumers found other ways to watch movies, for example by visiting drive-in cinemas or using online streaming services.