South Korean movies drew a quarterly record of 38 million viewers in the year’s first quarter.

The Korea Film Council (KOFIC) said Thursday that the figure for the first quarter of this year topped the previous record of 37 million which was set in the third quarter of last year.

The first quarter figure represents almost a 54 percent increase from the previous year.

Seven of the top ten movies in the first quarter’s box office rankings were Korean movies, including “Miracle in Cell No. 7” and “The Berlin File.

Korean movies accounted for 69-point-four percent of the market share, up ten percentage points from the yearly figure for 2012.

Thanks to the stellar performances of Korean movies, there were over 55 million tickets sold, posting ticket sales of 406 billion won for the first quarter. The number of viewers and sales rose 34 percent and 28 percent, respectively, year-on-year.