Korean Film Council's quarterly report shows the industry's best opening stretch in five years — and one distributor walking away with the lion's share
Korea's film business is showing signs of life again, and it has one film — and the studio behind it — to thank for most of it.
According to the quarterly report released Wednesday by the Korean Film Council, the government body in charge of film policy, the country's box office took in 318 billion won ($215 million) and drew 31.9 million admissions between January and March, making it the strongest first quarter since 2020.
Revenue climbed 58.7 percent year on year; admissions rose 53.2 percent.
That marks a meaningful shift for an industry that has spent the better part of five years in the doldrums. Multiplexes here have been notably slower to bounce back from the pandemic-era downturn than most major markets: 2024 ticket sales sat at roughly 53 percent of pre-pandemic levels, while the United States and United Kingdom had recovered to between 70 and 80 percent, and France, Germany and Japan were close to fully back.
Leading the charge were the homegrown titles, which more than doubled their take from 2025 and reached 94.5 percent of the 2017-2019 first-quarter revenue average.
Korean productions claimed 73.4 percent of revenue in the first quarter of 2026, up from 53.5 percent a year before. Foreign releases, by contrast, slipped for a third straight first quarter, with revenue down 9 percent year on year.
The bulk of those gains, though, came from a single film: "The King's Warden," which has smashed through one record after another since its Feb. 4 opening.
Built around the bond between a deposed king and the village chief tasked with keeping watch over him, the period drama has pulled in 151.8 billion won and 15.73 million admissions since opening, becoming the highest-grossing Korean release of all time.
The record-breaker was a tremendous coup for local distributor Showbox, which rode the mega-hit — plus one more — to dominate the quarterly market share.
Before "The King's Warden," Showbox also handled "Once We Were Us," the heartbreak romance that edged out James Cameron's $400 million "Avatar" sequel atop the daily charts during the New Year's holiday stretch.
Starring Moon Ga-young and Koo Kyo-hwan as former lovers who cross paths years later, the film added another 24.4 billion won and 2.6 million admissions to the studio's haul.
All told, Showbox claimed 55.4 percent of the country's box office revenue for the quarter, booking 176.3 billion won in total. That's more than four times the take of second-place Walt Disney Co. Korea, which finished with 43.1 billion won on the back of "Avatar: Fire and Ash" and "Zootopia 2."
"Avatar: Fire and Ash" came in a distant second on the quarterly chart by revenue, with 26.5 billion won and 2.18 million admissions. Premium-format screens, which typically cost 30 to 50 percent more than standard tickets, accounted for nearly half the film's earnings.
moonkihoon@heraldcorp.com
