Big-budget Korean films likely to be out of sight in local theaters, for now

It will be difficult to find big-budget Korean films in the coming month or so as many of them have delayed their opening dates.

No films with a budget of more than 10 billion won will open before April, as they delayed their release dates.

This is partially due to a surge of COVID-19 cases here.

The number of moviegoers hit a new low over the Seollal holiday, usually one of the busiest times of the year for movie theaters in Korea.

According to the Korean Film Council’s data, during the Seollal holidays -- from Jan 29. to Feb. 2 -- around 1.36 million people went to the movies. The figure is even lower than the number of moviegoers over last year’s Seollal holiday, which stood at around 1.53 million.

Two of the Korean films that were created at a cost of more than 10 billion won -- “Kingmaker” and “The Pirates: The Last Royal Treasure” -- only sold around 480,000 and 880,000 tickets, respectively, over the Seollal holidays.

Local film industry insiders say that the distributors of the highly anticipated films became more hesitant to fix release dates after seeing the two Korean films’ ticket sales, which fell far short of expectations.

Aviation disaster flick “Emergency Declaration,” directed by Han Jae-rim, which cost more than 24.5 billion won to produce, is have yet to confirm its release date.

The film had its world premiere at last year’s Cannes Film Festival in July. It has been one of the most anticipated films in South Korea because of its star-studded cast, which includes Song Kang-ho, Lee Byung-hun and Jeon Do-yeon.

The film’s release has been delayed several times since 2020 and most recently it was preparing to open in theaters in January. However, that plan was canceled as well.

Director Kim Han-min’s “Hansan: Rise of the Dragon” which was set to be released last summer, still does not have a confirmed release date.

The new film from Kim, who directed hit period films like “War of the Arrows” (2011) and “Roaring Currents” (2014), centers around the legendary historical figure Adm. Yi Sun-sin (played by Park Hae-il) fighting the Great Battle of Hansan in 1592.

The musical film “Hero” directed by Yoon Jae-kyun also has not decided its release date yet. The film is a biopic of Ahn Jung-geun, a Korean independence fighter who assassinated Ito Hirobumi, the first Japanese Resident-General in Korea during the Japanese colonial period, in Harbin, China in 1909.

By Song Seung-hyun (ssh@heraldcorp.com)