The annual number of viewers of South Korean movies has exceeded the 100 million mark for the third consecutive year, a government office compiling official box-office data said Tuesday.
Homegrown films had attracted 100.19 million viewers as of midnight, which means that an average of two of such films were seen by a person in a country with 50 million people in 2014, the Korean Film Commission said.
Leading the success was "Roaring Currents," an epic film that drew an all-time record of 17.6 million viewers in South Korea. The historical film depicts a legendary naval victory over Japan led by Admiral Yi Sun-sin of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910).
Korean films have generated 763.1 billion won (US$693 million) in combined local box-office sales so far this year.
Meanwhile, the accumulated number of tickets sold for foreign films this year has already exceeded the 100 million mark for the first time. As of Monday, the number stood at 104.69 million, boosted by the successes of the animated Disney film "Frozen" (10.29 million) and "Interstellar," a U.S. space epic that is soon expected to surpass the 10 million mark.
The total yearly number of viewers at local theaters topped 200 million for the second consecutive year. As of now, the figure came to 204.88 million with 1.585 trillion won in total sales. (Yonhap)
