If the Korean film industry in 2021 is described as "the sky collapses", then the data for 2022 gives the market great confidence. In 2022, sales of major sectors of the Korean film industry (cinemas, out-of-theater, and overseas exports) totaled KRW 1.7064 trillion, an increase of 66.7% compared to the previous year. However, the impact of the new crown epidemic on the Korean film industry has not ended so quickly.
In April 2022, the film market gradually came to life as the South Korean government announced its measures to relax epidemic prevention measures. As soon as "Crime City 2" was released in May, it quickly became the first "ten million movie" in the three years since the epidemic.
In addition to the relaxation of epidemic prevention measures and the return of popcorn to the cinema, the villain actor Sun Xijiu, who played a heavy role in the film, has just gained super popularity through the popular drama "My Liberation Log" that started a month ago. Coupled with the good reputation left by the previous work "Crime City", wonderful and refreshing action scenes, and the help of the much-loved powerful actor Ma Dong-suk, this film has become the first and only film in the Korean film market in 2022 with tens of millions.
Crime City 2
After the release of "Crime City 2", "Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness" (5.884 million viewers), "Top Gun 2" (8.177 million viewers), "Idle Mountain: The Appearance of the Dragon" (7.264 million viewers), "Together 2: International" (6.982 million viewers), "Avatar: The Way of Water" (7.313 million viewers, box office in 2022) and other topical works were released in South Korea one after another, all of which achieved good box office results, injecting a shot in the arm into the market.
With the help of popular films, Korean theaters gradually got rid of the downturn. In 2022, the total number of moviegoers in the Korean film industry (theaters) was 112.81 million, an increase of 86.4% compared with the previous year. Total revenue was KRW 1.1602 trillion, an increase of 98.5% compared to the previous year. This is the first time since the new crown that the total number of moviegoers in South Korea has exceeded 100 million, and it is also the first time in three years that the annual revenue of Korean cinemas has exceeded 1 trillion won.
In addition, there are 561 theaters in operation in South Korea in 2022, an increase of 19 (3.5%) over the previous year, and the number of screens is 3,322, also an increase of 68 (2.1%) from the previous year - this is the first increase in the number of Korean theaters in nearly five years.
From the data, the Korean film market after the epidemic seems to be improving. However, the above data is a comparison with the "previous year", that is, 2021.
"Idle Mountain: The Appearance of the Dragon"
Looking back at 2019 before the outbreak of the epidemic, the development of the Korean film market can be said to have reached its peak.
In January 2019, "Extreme Occupation" was released, and the number of moviegoers exceeded 16 million, and it still maintains the throne of the first box office (sales) in Korean film history; In April of the same year, the "Avengers" series, which caused a global boom, ushered in the final chapter, and the number of viewers of "Avengers: Endgame" quickly exceeded 10 million once it was released in South Korea, and various offline peripheral activities continued; In May, "Parasite", which returned from Cannes and was recorded in the history of Korean and even Asian films, was released, the essence of commercial films plus the blessing of international heavyweight awards, the film received a total of 10.085 million viewers after its release in South Korea; Disney continued to make efforts in South Korea, and "Aladdin" and "Frozen 2" also became tens of millions of movies after their release in South Korea.
In 2019 alone, 50 million movies were born in South Korea, in addition, "Extreme Escape", "Spider-Man: Far From Home", "Baekdu Mountain", "Captain Marvel" and "Joker" are also on the top ten annual box office lists in South Korea, and the number of moviegoers has exceeded 5 million.
Bong Joon-ho
In summary, theater sales for the whole year of 2019 were 1.914 trillion won, and the total number of moviegoers was 226.68 million. In 2022, there will be only one 10 million movies, and only five will have more than 5 million moviegoers. In other words, the annual revenue of theaters in 2022 is only three-fifths (60.6%) of that of 2019, and the total annual number of moviegoers is only one-half (49.8%) of that of 2019. From this point of view, the Korean film market still has a long way to go if it wants to fully recover to the pre-epidemic level.
Not only that, the impact of the epidemic on the film market is far more than what is seen now, and the production and shooting of films during the epidemic has also received a lot of impact, and the results appeared in 2022 and are expected to continue into 2023 or beyond.
Many Korean local commercial blockbusters that were filmed or post-produced during the epidemic will be released one after another in 2022, but I don't know whether the audience and media have high expectations for these films, or the epidemic has changed people's viewing orientation, and many films that have been given high hopes and regarded as "salvation" have not met expectations.
"Determination to Break Up"
With "Determination to Break Up", the unique "Park Cannes" not only put Chinese actor Tang Wei on the "altar" in South Korea, but also attacked Cannes again and won the Best Director Award.
Although there are Cannes awards and overwhelming publicity, "Determination to Break Up", which was thought to recreate the scenery of "Parasite", was released in South Korea at the end of June is not impressive, only gaining 1.89 million viewers, which will exceed the profit and loss point. If Park Chan-wook's films have always been relatively niche, low box office is the norm, and it is a blessing to recover the cost, then the following films are a different story.
"Tens of millions of film directors", "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "Assassination" director Choi Dong-hoon launched a new work "Alien + Man" after seven years, and Yoo Joon-yeol, Kim Tae-ri, Kim Woo-bin, So Ji-seop and other well-known actors with both popularity and strength joined, which is another highly anticipated Korean sci-fi film after "Victory" and "Seo Fu".
However, because the plot dragged on, and the overall plot was paving the way for the second part, even if the film was a novel mix and match of elements such as weird power and science fiction, it did not meet expectations in word of mouth or box office. The profit and loss point of this commercial film with a pure production cost of 33 billion won reached 7.3 million moviegoers, but in fact, the number of moviegoers after the screening was only 1.539 million.
At present, "Alien + Man 2" is expected to be released in 2023, I don't know if the plot of the second part will be more compact after the worldview of the first part, and whether it will be able to recover the lost box office and set a new record.
"Alien + Man"
The film "Extraordinary Declaration" directed by Han Jae-rim, director of "Look", "King", was also released in South Korea in August 2022. This film gathers South Korea's Cannes actresses and Cannes actors - Jeon Do-yeon and Song Kang-ho, as well as powerful actors such as Lee Byung-heon, Kim Nam-yoo, and Ren Siwan.
The film premiered in Cannes in July 2021, and has since been postponed due to the impact of the epidemic. After its local release in August 2022, the box office of the film of this "10 million movie" lineup was not as expected, with only 2.058 million moviegoers, while the film's profit and loss point was 5 million.
Extraordinary Declaration
If the cautious release of commercial films during the epidemic in previous years has given independent art films opportunities, then in 2022, when epidemic prevention measures are relaxed and commercial films are released, the development of South Korea's independent art film market has been slightly restricted.
In South Korea, a total of 357 independent art films were screened in 2022, a decrease of 20.7% compared to the previous year. The total number of viewers of independent art films was only 3.82 million, a decrease of 9.6% compared with the previous year, and only 3.4% of the total number of moviegoers in 2022, the lowest proportion since 2015; Indie art films sold 35.3 billion won, a slight decrease of 1.7% compared to the previous year, accounting for only 3.0% of total theater sales in 2022.
At the same time, sales in the out-of-theater market (TV VOD, Internet VOD, DVD, Blu-ray, etc.) totaled 453.9 billion won, an increase of 18.3% compared to the previous year, accounting for 26.6% of the sales of the main sectors of the Korean film industry (cinemas, off-the-theaters, and overseas) in 2022, a decrease of 10.9% compared to 37.5% of the previous year.
With the pioneering of Korean film and television works such as "Parasite", "Squid Game" and "Determination to Break Up", as well as the influence of global OTT platforms, the world has cast its attention on the Korean content industry. The film market, which was only open online during the epidemic, has finally returned to offline in 2022, helping the market to reopen export channels and make trading more convenient and close.
In 2022, overseas exports of Korean films have not only recovered, but also increased. Overseas exports totaled USD 71,465,380 (KRW 92.3 billion), an increase of 47.0% compared to 2021. Among them, excluding technical services, the total export value of completed films in South Korea was 71,400,380 US dollars, an increase of 66.0% compared to the previous year, and the highest after the record of Korean film exports (75.99 million won in 2005).
"Ghost"
Now, two months have passed since 2023, and the Korean film market is still slowly moving forward. "Slam Dunk" was released in South Korea in early January, and the number of viewers has exceeded 3.7 million so far; "Avatar: The Way of Water" continues to make efforts, and the number of moviegoers has exceeded 3.4 million in 2023, and the total number of moviegoers has exceeded 10 million.
In terms of Korean films, the musical movie "Hero", which has been in stock for a long time and was finally released at the end of 2022, has only received 1.769 million moviegoers so far; "Negotiations" jointly joined by Hyun Bin and Hwang Hyung-min has only received 1.720 million moviegoers; the highly anticipated "Ghost", adapted from Mai's novel "The Wind", has only 663,000 moviegoers since its release on January 18, and its reputation is not ideal...
"Ghost"
Even so, we all know that the impact of the pandemic on the Korean film industry will not recover overnight.
After 2023, there are still many films worth looking forward to waiting for the test of the audience and the market, such as director Yoo Seung-wan's new work "Smuggling" and "Veteran 2", Guo Jingze's new work "Fireman", Kang Jiong-chul's new work "Hi.5", Kim Ji-yun's new work "Spider Nest", Woo Min-ho's new work "Harbin", Kim Yong-hwa's new work "Moon", and Kim Tae-yong's new work "Dreamland" and so on.
As long as the market continues to improve and develop steadily, as long as the audience still has confidence in the film, I believe that the Korean films that have attracted global attention will attract more attention.