Updated
Updated · The Korea Herald · Aug 21
South Korea Box Office Nears 10 Million for 2 Hollywood Films as Odyssey Outpaces Spider-Man
Updated
Updated · The Korea Herald · Aug 21

South Korea Box Office Nears 10 Million for 2 Hollywood Films as Odyssey Outpaces Spider-Man

3 articles · Updated · The Korea Herald · Aug 21

Summary

  • "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" and "The Odyssey" are chasing South Korea's 10 million-admissions mark, with the Marvel sequel at 7.74 million tickets and Nolan's epic at 5.79 million through Thursday.
  • 10 million admissions is South Korea's benchmark for a megahit; if both get there, they would become the first pair of foreign films to do so together and the first back-to-back releases since 2015.
  • "The Odyssey" looks stronger: it has led the daily chart since Aug. 5, sold 755,000 advance tickets by Friday morning and held 73% of nationwide presales, helped by heavy demand for scarce Imax screens.
  • "Brand New Day" is fading in its fourth week, dropping to 55,000 admissions on Thursday from more than 300,000 over the holiday weekend and needing another 2.3 million tickets as screens shift to "The Odyssey."
  • For Korean theaters, still slower than most major markets to recover from the pandemic slump, a double 10 million run would signal the clearest audience rebound in years.

Insights

Will two Hollywood blockbusters truly save South Korea's struggling cinemas, or just mask a deeper crisis for local films?
How are 50-year-old projectors and extreme ticket scalping fueling South Korea's biggest cinema comeback in years?