In this file photo taken on Nov. 1, 2021, a Seoul movie theater posts an announcement on its operation of a vaccine pass cinema that allows fully vaccinated people to have popcorn and sodas while viewing films. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Dec. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean movie theaters saw their monthly attendance soar more than 80 percent in November from a year earlier amid eased virus controls, box office data showed Wednesday.
A total of 6.51 million people went to theaters last month, up 81.1 percent from the same period last year, according to the data by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC).
The total revenue more than doubled to 65.9 billion won (US$55.5 million) last month from a year ago.
KOFIC said the sharp on-year rise in ticket sales was led by the government’s “living with COVID-19″ scheme starting from November, that lifted nighttime curfews and allowed popcorn during screenings.
The superhero movie “Eternals,” released on Nov. 3, topped the November box office with 3 million admissions worth 31.2 billion won in revenue, followed by the sci-fi film “Dune,” which attracted 670,000 people last month.
The KOFIC data also showed that the total number of moviegoers hit 52 million for the first 11 months of 2021, down 10.4 percent from a year earlier. The combined revenue climbed 0.4 percent on-year to a cumulative 500 billion won over the cited period.
(Yonhap)
