S. Korea's box office revenue hits record high in 2009

SEOUL, Jan. 5 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's box office revenue surpassed the 1
trillion won mark despite the economic slowdown in 2009, mainly due to higher
ticket prices, a state-funded film council said Tuesday.

According to data tentatively filed by Korea Film Council with its nationwide
movie ticket network, sales last year reached a record high of 1.08 trillion won
(US$938 million), past the previous peak of 995 billion won in 2007. The final
tally will be set later this month, when data from minor theaters come in, the
council said.
Han Seung-hee, a box office analyst at the council, said the record high revenue
derived more from higher ticket prices than from an increase in audience numbers.

"It comes from more of the fact that ticket prices went up. There were more
expensive 3D or 4D movies in the market and night-time discounts were slashed,"
Han noted.
Audience size, at 150 million, has barely increased from 2007, while the ticket
price for a regular movie went up to 8,000 won ($7) from 7,000 won at the start
of last year. Special-effect movies cost well beyond 10,000 won.
The market was almost evenly shared between foreign movies and homegrown ones,
with the latter drawing 48.7 percent of the total ticket sales.
In a separate report, the council expects the Korean movie market will continue
its incremental growth over the next five years, expanding an average 1.9 percent
every year.
Ticket sales are forecast to reach 170 million by 2014, a stellar performance for
the movie industry in the country with the population of 48 million.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)