{"id":609992,"date":"2026-07-29T12:56:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T12:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/609992\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T12:56:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T12:56:16","slug":"the-kings-warden-leads-korea-to-best-h1-box-office-since-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/609992\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The King’s Warden’ Leads Korea to Best H1 Box Office Since Pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tLocal films drove Korean box office recovery in the first half of 2026, with total industry revenue reaching KRW579 billion ($399.1 million) on 57.05 million admissions, up 41.9% and 34.2% year-on-year, respectively, according to figures released by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC).<\/p>\n

\n\tLocal titles accounted for the bulk of that growth. Korean-film revenue totaled KRW370.2 billion ($255.2 million) from 37.37 million admissions, an increase of 81.7% and 74.9% year-on-year. It is the strongest first-half showing for local cinema since the pandemic, with revenue now equivalent to 94.2% of the pre-pandemic first-half average calculated across 2017 to 2019.<\/p>\n

\n\tInternational films generated KRW208.8 billion ($143.9 million) in revenue from 19.68 million admissions in the same period. Admissions dropped 6.9% year-on-year, but revenue still rose 2.3%, a gain the council attributed to heavy premium-format ticket sales for titles including \u201cProject Hail Mary<\/a>\u201d and \u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash<\/a>.\u201d Premium-format screenings made up 30.2% of total revenue for \u201cProject Hail Mary\u201d and 49.9% for \u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe King\u2019s Warden\u201d led all releases for the half, pulling in KRW163.1 billion ($112.4 million) from 16.91 million admissions to become the highest-grossing Korean film ever released. \u201cColony<\/a>\u201d ranked second with KRW60.5 billion ($41.7 million) from 5.74 million admissions, while \u201cSalmokji: Whispering Water\u201d placed third on KRW33.3 billion ($23 million) from 3.24 million admissions, giving Korean titles a clean sweep of the top three releases. KOFIC noted that strong results this half came not only from period dramas and action blockbusters but also from mid- and small-budget romance and horror titles, pointing to a wider range of genres and scales among successful local releases.<\/p>\n

\n\tPremium-format screenings continued their growth streak, generating KRW45.7 billion ($31.5 million) in revenue for the first half, up 56.3% year-on-year and accounting for 7.9% of total revenue. The council said the trend has climbed steadily since the pandemic as theaters lean on premium formats to differentiate their offerings. The average ticket price for the first half rose KRW551 (\u00a238) year-on-year to KRW10,150 ($7), reflecting both that shift toward premium formats and higher ticket prices more generally.<\/p>\n

\n\tShowbox Corp. led the distributor rankings, capturing a 48.6% revenue share worth KRW281.4 billion ($194 million) after distributing four releases \u2013 \u201cThe King\u2019s Warden,\u201d \u201cColony,\u201d \u201cSalmokji: Whispering Water\u201d and \u201cOnce We Were Us\u201d \u2013 that all performed well. The Walt Disney Company Korea placed second, taking a 13.8% share worth KRW43.1 billion ($29.7 million) across nine titles that included \u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash,\u201d \u201cToy Story 5\u201d and \u201cThe Devil Wears Prada.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the independent and arthouse segment, \u201cBackrooms\u201d led the category, taking in KRW12.4 billion ($8.5 million) from 1.16 million admissions. \u201cRan 12.3\u201d placed second, with \u201cMy Name\u201d rounding out the top three.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Local films drove Korean box office recovery in the first half of 2026, with total industry revenue reaching…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[263],"tags":[56379,212623,18,117,19,17,327,105152,182109],"class_list":["post-609992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-avatar-fire-and-ash","tag-colony","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-movies","tag-project-hail-mary","tag-the-kings-warden"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117003379179306630","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}