South Korean movies attracted a record number of viewers in August as several big hits dominated the local box office, a market tracker said Monday.

Korean films drew a combined audience of 20.44 million from Aug. 1 to Aug. 25, or 78.9 percent of the people who saw films in local theaters, according to the Korean Film Council, a state agency for promoting Korean films.

The number broke the previous monthly record of 18 million for February this year, when such Korean films as "Miracle in Cell No. 7" and "The Berlin File" hit the local box-office.

The council attributed the August record to the consecutive commercial successes of homegrown films such as director Bong Joon-ho's English-language debuting film "Snowpiercer," a thriller "Hide and Seek" starring Son Hyun-ju, and "The Flu," a disaster movie starring Jang Hyuk and Su Ae.

"Snowpiercer" has drawn an audience of more than 8.8 million since its release on July 31. "The Terror, LIVE," "Hide and Seek" and "The Flu" respectively recorded an aggregated audience of 5.4 million, 4.07 million and 2.7 million.

As four homemade films unprecedentedly dominated the local box-office, Korean films racked up 145.6 billion won ($130.8 million) in sales, the highest in history, during the period although their market share was 78.9 percent, lower than 85.4 percent in 2006.

But the final market share for August is expected to go up as there still remains about a week before the end of the month. (Yonhap News)