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South Korea’s movie market hit a low point this weekend, with only $4.34 million made at the box office nationwide. This means the entertainment business will continue facing problems after a slow summer.

It was a close race at the box office this weekend, with “Venom: The Last Dance” barely hanging on to the top spot with $1.19 million. On the other hand, the newly released Korean romantic film “Hear Me: Our Summer” sold more tickets than Venom.

The funny and touching “Hear Me: Our Summer” is good. The story is based on a 2009 Taiwanese movie about a young man who falls in love while helping his hearing-impaired professional swimmer sister. The movie made a huge $1.65 million in its first five days in theaters. It was directed by Jo Seon-ho and produced by Hive Mediaworks.

Comedies set in the United States continued to do pretty well. With $534,000 over the weekend, “Amazon...

The South Korean theatrical box office sunk to its lowest-earning weekend of the year, despite the release of new films including “Hear Me: Our Summer,” “Red One” and “Anora.”

“Venom: The Last Dance” and “Hear Me: Our Summer” were essentially tied for first place.

“Venom: The Last Dance” held on to the top place in revenue terms with $1.19 million, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council. But local charts are ranked according to admissions and showed it in second place, due to its 168,000 ticket sales total.

“Hear Me: Our Summer” took $1.17 million but sold 169,000 tickets. The film is a Korean remake of a 2009 hit Taiwanese romantic comedy. A young man helps out with his sister, a hearing-impaired swimmer, and slowly falls in love with a girl he meets. It earned $1.65 million over its full five-day opening run. It hails from director Jo Seon-ho and Hive Mediaworks production company.

“Venom: The Last Dance” waltzed to a weekend win in South Korea, but failed to shake the country’s box office out of its recent torpor.

The third film in the “Venom” trilogy earned $2.66 million over the Friday to Sunday period, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). That represented a dominant 62% market share.

Over the five days since its opening on Wednesday, it built up a cumulative of $4.13 million. At that pace, the new film will struggle to overtake the $15.2 million total earned by “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” which was released in 2021 during the worst of the Covid pandemic.

That is indicative of a downturn at the Korean box office which is beginning to look like it has become structural. Across the nation, Korean cinema receipts were worth just $4.32 million over the latest weekend. By a narrow margin that was...

Korean-made crime-comedy-thriller “I The Executioner,” a sequel to 2015 hit ‘Veteran,” continued to top South Korea’s weekend box office. Its victory, however, was a hollow one as Korea’s overall box office slumped to its lowest level this year.

Nationwide, Korea’s roughly 2,500 cinemas together earned just $4.39 million between Friday and Sunday.

In several previous years, the month of October has been weak for cinemas in Korea, but the latest weekend total was a lower mid-October mark than either Covid-blighted 2022 or 2023’s recovery year.

The latest figures are in line with some of the gloomy discussion at the recently-concluded Busan International Film Festival, where the difficulties currently faced by theatrical cinema and the companies that supply and distribute it, were major talking points.

“I, The Executioner” earned $1.08 million in its fifth full weekend session, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). The...

People navigating love life and life in general is hardly a new subject in cinema and other art forms. Even the setting in which a straight woman lives with a gay man in the same apartment is not that new. However, Park Sang-young‘s novel “Love in the Big City” is not merely a Korean riff on, let’s say, Will and Grace TV series. On the contrary, it aims for something more earnest, realistic and aware of the wider societal context.

Love in the Big City is screening at Hawai’i International Film Festival

The best-selling novel is actually getting two releases this fall. While the TV series adaptation will hit the small screens later this month, the big screen one, penned by Kim Na-deul and helmed by E.oni, formerly known as Lee Eon-hee (of 2016 “Missing” fame), has already premiered at Toronto and screened at Hawaii International Film Festival.

Korean-made crime-comedy-thriller “I, The Executioner,” a sequel to 2015 hit ‘Veteran,” continued its spree at the top of the South Korea weekend box office. It earned $1.68 million in its fourth full weekend session, ahead of top-ranked new release “Joker: Folie a Deux.”

“I, The Executioner” saw its market share slip to 29%, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). The latest weekend increment gives the film a $49.97 million running total since releasing on Sept. 13. That makes it the fourth highest grossing film of the year in the country, behind “Exhuma,” “The Roundup: Punishment” and “Inside Out 2,” which is still some distance ahead on $64 million.

“Joker: Folie a Deux” opened with $1.17 million between Friday and Sunday and achieved a 21% market share, according to Kobis. Over its full five-day opening run, which included Thursday’s National Foundation Day public holiday, it accumulated $3.60 million.

Released the same day (Oct.

The 19th edition of the London Korean Film Festival (Lkff), organised by the Korean Cultural Centre UK (Kccuk) and supported by the Korean Film Council, is proud to unveil its 2024 programme. The London Korean Film Festival will take place at BFI Southbank, Ciné Lumière, and Institute of Contemporary Arts (Ica) from 1 November to 13 November. It will feature two strands; Cinema Now and Women’s Voices, as well as a programme from the BFI Echoes in Time: Korean Films of the Golden Age and New Cinema.

Opening Gala Film: Park Beom-su‘s Victory

Closing Gala Film: E.oni‘s Love In The Big City

Special Screening: Choi Dong-hoon‘s Alienoid: Return To The Future

Victory by Park Beom-su will open the festival on the 6 November at BFI Southbank with the director in attendance. In 1999, two rebellious teenagers start a cheerleading squad for their provincial high school, bringing confidence and solidarity to themselves,...

Sometimes a film comes along and blindsides when you least expect it. The sublime surprise Love in the Big City is just such a film, enriching the landscape of Korean cinema in a year that has quietly seen low-key films return to the fore while their big-budget brethren have failed to capture the imagination of the public. That is not to say that Love in the Big City wasn't a title worth looking forward to. It stars the supremely talented Kim Go-eun, currently on a major hot streak, alongside rising Pachinko star Noh Sang-hyun (aka Steve Noh), is directed by E.oni, whose 2003 debut ...ing remains one of the most affecting Korean screen romances, and had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival....

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