Rise on back of THE ROUNDUP: NO WAY OUT

The market share of Korean movies at the local box office soared to 65 percent last month, led by the popularity of the action comedy flick The Roundup: No Way Out, industry data showed Thursday.

Korean films drew 9.41 million moviegoers in June to account for 64.8 percent of the total audience, a sharp hike from 19.5 percent a month earlier, according to the data compiled by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC). Their box-office sales stood at 93.9 billion won (US$73.4 million), 64.7 percent of the total. It is the first time in seven months that Korean movies have surpassed the sales and box-office share of their foreign counterparts.

Posters for the South Korean action comedy film The Roundup: No Way Out are displayed at a Seoul theater, in this file photo taken June 11, 2023. (Yonhap)

The robust sales were mostly attributable to the success of The Roundup: No Way Out, the third installment of a crime action comedy series released May 31. Last month alone, No Way Out raked in 87.1 billion won in sales and attracted 8.75 million viewers, dominating over 90 percent of the local box office in terms of sales and admissions.

No Way Out, starring action star Don Lee (aka Ma Dong-seok), surpassed 10 million admissions on July 1, becoming the first movie released in the country this year to surpass the milestone. Its predecessor, The Roundup, garnered 12.69 million admissions last year to become the first movie to surpass the 10 million milestone since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The first film in the series, The Outlaws (2017), attracted 6.87 million viewers.

By Kim Eun-jung