Summer blockbusters drive 70 pct growth in S. Korean admissions in July

All News 10:59 August 13, 2020

SEOUL, Aug. 13 (Yonhap) -- Homegrown summer blockbusters like the zombie apocalypse film "Peninsula" helped South Korean movies see their combined admissions jump nearly 70 percent in July from a month earlier, data showed Thursday.

The number of moviegoers who watched South Korean films reached 4.69 million last month, up 68.4 percent from 2.78 million the previous month, according to the monthly data by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC).

Revenues of South Korean-made films also surged 65.1 percent on-month to 40 billion won (US$33.8 million).

From a year earlier, moreover, the total admissions and revenues of Korean flicks jumped 40.5 percent and 57.5 percent on-year, respectively.

The July performance was led by the release of summer tent poles including "Peninsula," which attracted 3.22 million viewers in July alone after it hit screens on July 15.

Another zombie thriller, "#Alive," released on June 24, posted 700,000 admissions in July, while the action adventure "Steel Rain 2: Summit," which premiered on July 29, sold 520,000 tickets in just three days.

On the other hand, no new foreign blockbusters were released in July to rival them.

Meanwhile, 5.62 million people went to theaters in July, compared to 21.9 million tallied in the same month in 2019, as the South Korean film industry has been struggling with the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the monthly figure has been on a steady rise after hitting rock bottom in April with an all-time low of 970,000.