hankyoreh

By Hong Seok-jae, film correspondent

The South Korean film industry enjoyed one of its best-ever years in 2013. The year’s 212 million ticket sales were the most in history, and sales revenue reached 1,543.2 billion won (US$1.47 billion), a nearly 100 billion won (US$95 million) increase from the year before. The rise in viewer numbers was matched by an increase in film releases, with 874 new movies debuting in 2013 (an average of 73 per month). The figure was more than double the 400 new releases just three years before in 2010.

But while film and audience numbers grew, South Korean and American films only tightened their grip on the market. According to computerized ticket sale data supplied by the Korean Film Council on Jan. 2, films from those two countries accounted for 97% of the market last year. This means that the roughly 460 releases from other countries made up just 3%. Half of that total, or 1.5% of the overall market share, belonged to British films, thanks in large part to the strong performance of the romantic comedy About Time, which drew more than 2 million viewers. Japanese films had a 0.9% share, while the share for Chinese films was just 0.3%.

Japanese films have made a particularly noticeable slide. Films from Japan have typically enjoyed an annual audience share of around 2%; last year was the first time the number dipped below 1%. One hundred twenty Japanese films were released in South Korea last year - nearly three times the 47 released in 2012 - but the number of viewers only fell. Since 2011, when South Korean and US films began to dominate, the Japanese films have had difficulty finding screens, and audiences have been shrinking.

China, another major supplier of foreign films, has seen its market share slide to the 0.3% range for the past several years.

European movies did better at attracting South Korean audiences, enjoying a share of over 1% with British films meeting a favorable response and numerous film festival award winners premiering. But compared to 2012, when the films pulled a 4.4% share with 8.3 million viewers, the drop was steep.

With South Korean and US films crowding out the market, many are fretting that filmgoers could be getting an unbalanced cinematic diet.

“When you’re consuming [products] from specific cultures, the risk is a kind of hypertrophy for those cultures,” said film critic Jeon Chan-il.

“Audiences that view films from different countries and directors can broaden their cultural sensibilities, and the Korean film industry can use different subject matter and forms to increase the quality of its own films,” Jeon added.

Jeon said South Korean multiplexes should work to screen a more diverse range of films along European or US lines.

“That way, viewers can enjoy a greater variety of movies,” he said.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]