Anchor: Korea movies have started to see a turnaround amid the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, ticket sales for homegrown movies have surged nearly 70 percent in July compared to the previous month.
Park Jong-hong has this report.

Report: Homegrown summer blockbusters are enjoying a boost in ticket sales.

New figures from the Korean Film Council show that movies like the zombie flick “Peninsula” attracted throngs of moviegoers with admissions jumping nearly 70 percent in July from the previous month.

The number of moviegoers who watched local films reached 4-point-69 million last month, up a whopping 68-point-4 percent from a month earlier.

Revenues of South Korean-made films also surged more than 65 percent on-month to 40 billion won, or roughly 34 million dollars.

Leading the July performance was "Peninsula," which attracted 3-point-2 million viewers in July alone in just two weeks of its release.

Another zombie thriller, "#Alive," released on June 24, posted 700,000 admissions in July, while the action adventure "Steel Rain 2: Summit," sold 520,000 tickets in just three days after its opening.

On the other hand, no new foreign blockbusters were released in July to rival the Korean films.

Meanwhile, a total of 5-point-62 million people went to the movies in July, compared to 21-point-9 million tallied in the same month in 2019, reflecting the fallout of the pandemic on the South Korean film industry.
Park Jong-hong, KBS World Radio News.