[Korean Film News] Korean Industry Can’t Be Complascent

Posted by Jon Pais at 9:54am.

Posted in Film News , Asia.

Korean films captured a highly respectable 60% + market share in 2006, the largest audience yet for domestic production since KOFIC (Korean Film Council) began keeping records in 1998. As a result, several Hollywood distributors have scaled down or restructured their businesses on the peninsula. But there is another less rosy side to the Korean film industry. For one thing, an increasing number of Korean films are losing money as a result of the surge in the number of films (100+) and sluggish overseas interest. Fewer than 20% of the films are expected to make a profit, compared with 30% the year before. Exports, which had risen dramatically in previous years, showed a marked decline this year, plunging 58.3 percent in the first half of 2006 when compared to the same period last year. The reason behind the steep decline? A large quantity of mediocre films that rely solely on hallyu (Korean Wave) stars. Meanwhile, production costs have been soaring. Exports to Japan, which stood at a whopping US $30.98 million in the first half of 2005, registered a paltry US $8.72 million the first half of this year. The blockbuster monster film The Host, which came in at 7th place the first week of its release in Japan back in September, fell to 10th place in its second week.

[Source: Chosun Ilbo]

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Reader Comments

ed 12/10/2006 @ 11:57am

it’s scary to think how much of that $30.98 million in export the japanese investors managed to earn back! yonsama & jang dong-gon are still doing whirlwind fan duties in japan…

HK market has only bought “human interest” stories like FOR HOROWITZ, but very little of the popcorn fluff...which they have a surplus of themselves!!