Mid-sized productions such as Showbox’s Detective K: Secret Of Virtuous Widow (above) and CJ E&M’s Punch (below) have proved big hitters at the Korean box offi ce Korea packs a punch
Strong stories and word of mouth rather than big stars and special effects are the driving forces at the Korean box office. Liz Shackleton looks at the state of the local industry as new players enter the fray and eyes are turning towards China
T
he old film business adage that ‘nobody knows anything’ when it comes to predicting hits has been especially true for the Korean
fi lm industry over the past year, during which big- budget fi lms with high expectations have fl opped and smaller fi lms without stars have cleaned up at the box offi ce. Mid-sized productions such as CJ E&M’s Punch
and Silenced, Lotte Entertainment’s War Of The Arrows and Showbox’s Detective K: Secret Of Virtu- ous Widow thrived on strong stories and word of mouth, rather than big stars and special effects. Punch in particular performed way beyond expec- tations — the story of a high-school boy and his teacher who lives next door grossed $34m for fourth place in the year-end chart. None of these fi lms are classed as mega-hits, but
the steady fl ow of mid-range successes pushed the market share of Korean fi lms to 52% in 2011, its highest level in four years. The trend has continued in the fi rst quarter of this year with solid perform- ers such as comedy Dancing Queen, courtroom drama Unbowed, gangster fi lm Nameless Gangster: Rules Of Time and romantic drama Architecture 101. Their success helped push Korean fi lms’ market share to 61%. Meanwhile, big-budget productions such as CJ’s
My Way, directed by Kang Je-gyu (Shiri, Taegukgi) and featuring a glittering cast, have disappointed at the box offi ce. The $24m war epic, released at the end of last year, grossed around only $14m at the Korean box offi ce. Last year, other big fi lms, such as CJ’s 3D creature feature Sector 7 and Show-
■ 46 Screen International at Cannes May 19, 2012
The steady flow of mid-range successes pushed the market share of Korean films to 52% in 2011
box’s war drama The Front Line, also performed below expectations, though Sector 7 had a healthy run in China and The Front Line — like My Way — sold well overseas. The emergence of new players is also shaking up
the market. Korea’s fi lm industry has traditionally been dominated by three big studios — CJ E&M, Showbox Mediaplex and Lotte Entertainment — but a relative newcomer, fi nancier-distributor Next Entertainment World (N.E.W.), has broken into their ranks. In the first quarter of 2012, N.E.W. ranked second behind CJ E&M with a 15% box-offi ce share, due to local hits such as Unbowed and Love Fiction, along with its for- eign releases (see box-offi ce fea- ture, p52).
In addition, Daisy Entertainment, best known as
a buyer that releases through its distribution arm Cinergy, is also stepping up production activity, co- financing domestic titles such as omnibus film Horror Stories and revenge thriller Don’t Cry Mommy. Daisy & Cinergy also co-fi nanced Cannes Competition title The Taste Of Money with Lotte Entertainment. But even with strong market share and new sources of fi nance, the Korean fi lm business is never content to rest on its laurels. Studios and government organisations such as the Korean Film Council (KOFIC) have recently been examining how to bring the dormant ancillary market back to life, and also how to expand international distribution as the local theatrical market has reached
saturation point. Some of Korea’s best-known direc-
tors are current ly making their English-language debuts — Park Chan-wook
with Stoker and Kim Jee-woon with The Last Stand – but these fi lms are Hollywood productions that do not involve Korean investment. Bong Joon-ho’s English-lan- guage Snow Piercer, starring Chris Evans, Jamie Bell and Tilda Swinton, may create a new business
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