Korea, the Nation that Watches the Most Movies. How Do You know? ????

Did you know that Korea has the world’s highest average number of cinema attendance per capita?

In 2019, Koreans watched an average of 4.37 movies a year. They love watching movies! The value dropped to 1.15 movies in 2020 due to the pandemic. But fortunately, in 2022, the film industry is reviving!

‘Watching a movie’ is seen as one of the activities that friends, couples, and family can easily do. It would be better to say Koreans, generally speaking, enjoy ‘going to the movie theatre’, rather than saying ‘watching a movie.’

How do you know if the movie was commercially successful in Korea?

Every country has a different population. It can be confusing to determine which movies were successful at the box office depending on countries. In Korea, the number of people watching a movie is the most important indicator that implies ‘commercial success.’

“10 MILLION VIEWERS” is the indicator.

When a movie reaches 10 million viewers, it goes into the hall of fame of the most commercially successful films in the Korean film industry.

10 million = 1000만 = 천만

[ 천만 배우 ]
– Actors who appeared in 10 million viewers movies

[ 천만 영화 ]
– The movies that reached 10 million viewers

Do you mean that other movies are not successful?

Of course not. It really depends on how you define ‘success.’ In general, if the production company returns all the investment, then the movie has commercially succeeded.

Numbers aren’t everything. Some were beloved by the critics, but not by the public. Some were successful, but didn’t reach 10 million.

Interesting Facts

✅ <Silmido> is the first movie to surpass 10 million viewers.

✅ <The Royal Jester> is the first Korean historical movie to surpass 10 million viewers.

✅ <Avatar> is the first foreign movie to surpass 10 million viewers.

✅ The actor, Oh Dal-su, appeared in a total of 8 ’10 million viewer movies’ and became the most frequently appeared actor.

???? Question for UoH Friends :

✔️ What’s your favorite Korean movie? And Why?