Korean films dominate box office in 2015

Actor Hwang Jung-min stars as mountaineer Um Hong-gil in “The Himalayas.”/ Courtesy of CJ E&M

By Baek Byung-yeul

This year’s box office was dominated by local films, still outnumbering foreign titles. Three domestic films and one Hollywood film garnered more than 10 million admissions. Ticket sales to local theaters have surpassed 200 million for the third year in a row. Here are some memorable stories and numbers from the Korean box office this year.

Over 200 million tickets purchased

This year’s Korean box office has both achieved new historic heights in attendance and total sales.

According to the Korean Film Council (KOFIC) that tracks box office sales, theaters sold more than 200 million movie tickets for the third consecutive year. As of Monday, both Korean and foreign films have sold 215.17 million tickets. Annual attendance for Korean films also reached the 100 million mark for the fourth consecutive year, surpassing 103,599,662 as of midnight Monday. The total sales figure also topped this year, surpassing 1.7 trillion won ($1.46 billion).

Given that the country’s population is estimated to be around 51 million, the number shows the average Korean resident has visited movie theaters four times a year.

3 domestic, 1 Hollywood film topped 10 million mark

The box office graph saw Hollywood films dominating in the first half of this year while domestic films showed dominance in the latter half.

“Ode to My Father,” a film portraying modern Korean history ranging from the Korean War to the present, became the first Korean film to top the 10 million mark earlier this year. No Korean film had succeeded in surpassing that mark before.

The film, released Dec. 2014, sold 5.3 million tickets last year, and surpassed the 10 million mark on Jan. 13. It ended up selling some 14 million tickets.

Marvel’s “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” which attracted public attention for some scenes shot in Korea last year, garnered 10.4 million, proving Korean’s love affair with super hero movies. It was the only foreign film in the top five highest grossing films this year.

Korean films significantly dominated the box office in the second half of this year, starting from “Northern Limit Line” that garnered 6.4 million since its opening in June.

“Assassination,” which depicts independence fighters during the Japanese occupation of Korea (1910-1945), attracted 12.7 million since its opening in late July and cop-action flick “Veteran” hit the theaters in early Aug. and ended bringing in more than 13.4 million viewers.

It all begins and ends with Hwang Jung-min

For actor Hwang Jung-min, 2015 would be an unforgettable year, as he was featured in three box office smashes this year.

Taking a leading role in “Ode to My Father,” the musical actor-turned-movie star reached his peak featuring as a police detective tracking down a heartless heir (actor Yoo Ah-in) of a family-owned conglomerate in “Veteran.”

It seems he is not satisfied yet. The 45-year-old is currently on screen in the mountain-themed film “The Himalayas.”

The film, based on a real story that follows a team of Korean mountaineers in 2005 who set out to find the body of their former teammate in the Himalayas, has garnered 4.4 million viewers through midnight Monday since its opening on Dec. 16. At this pace, it is expected to surpass the 6 million mark within this week.

Nominees snub prestigious film awards

The Daejong (Grand Bell) Film Awards, the country’s oldest and the most revered film awards ceremony, was under fire as none of the top nominees for the awards attended, in response to the organizing committee’s “no show, no award” policy.

All nine best actor and actress nominees including actors Hwang Jung-min, Son Hyun-joo, Yoo Ah-in and Ha Jung-woo and actresses Kim Yun-jin, Jun Ji-hyun, Kim Hye-soo, Uhm Jung-hwa and Han Hyo-joo missed the event held last month at the KBS Hall in Yeouido, Seoul.

Though they cited scheduling conflicts and overseas business trips as their reasons, it was crystal clear that their absence was protesting the decision.

A month before the awards ceremony, the organizing committee came under fire for announcing that they would not award a prize to recipients who didn’t take part in the event, adding it was undesirable for someone to accept the award on someone else’s behalf.

They added that the decision was taken to strengthen fairness, but they were criticized due to there being no relevance between improving the fairness of the awards and a nominee’s appearance at the ceremony.

Having suffered a blow to its image, it remains to be seen whether the organizing committee will adhere to their “no show, no award” policy next year.