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| ▲ On the 31st last month, a screen showing the movie 'Avatar: The Way of Water' (Avatar 2) appears at a movie theater in Seoul. (Yonhap) |
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| ▲ This image, provided by Korean Film Council, shows the logo of Korean Film Council. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
SEOUL, Feb. 24 (Yonhap) - Sales of the Korean film industry in January this year has recovered to around 80% compared to January 2019, before the pandemic.
According to the “January 2023 Korean Film Industry Settlement' data released by the Korean Film Council on Thursday, the total sales last month was KRW 124.1 billion, which was 82.1% of January 2019, before COVID-19.
This is a 21.3% (KRW 33.6 billion) decrease from December last year, the peak season at the end of the year, but an increase of 123.1% (KRW 68.5 billion) compared to the same month last year. It was analyzed that the recovery in sales was due to the large films being released together and attracting audiences.
In January this year, four films recorded sales of more than 10 billion won and more than 1 million viewers, including "Avatar: The Way of Water" (Avatar 2), "The First Slam Dunk," "Hero" and "The Point Men."
This contrasts with the only "Spider-Man: No-Way Home" in January last year.
Last month, the total number of audiences was 11.25 million, which was 62.1% of January 2019. It decreased by 20.6% from December 2022, but increased by 96.8% (5.53 million) compared to the same month last year.
The No. 1 box office hit in terms of sales last month was “Avatar 2” worth 42 billion won. Japanese animation "The First Slam Dunk," which has driven the retro craze, came in second with 20.6 billion won.
Third place was "Hero" (15.9 billion won), which filled the screen with the non-mainstream genre of "Musical Movie," and fourth place was "The Point Men" (15.2 billion won) starring Hwang Jung-min and Hyunbin.
The No. 1 independent and art film sales were "Even If This Love Disappears from the World Tonight," which raised 3.7 billion won. Until last month, the cumulative sales of this work were 10.5 billion won, which was rare for independent and artistic films.
(This article is translated from Korean to English by Yunhee Cho.)
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