Shinkai Makoto's animation "Suzume" led ticket sales in South Korean movie theaters for the 35th day, making it one of only two films to maintain such a reign since “Avatar” in 2009.

According to the Korea Film Council's box office statistics, the film has sold a total of more than four million-401-thousand tickets in one-thousand-572 theaters nationwide as of Tuesday.

Staying on top for the 35th day, "Suzume" caught up with James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” from 2022 to trail behind the record set by the original “Avatar" in 2009, which topped out at 43 weeks in South Korea. 

However, ticket sales for "Suzume" falls far behind previous box office hits, such as "The Roundup" which sold over ten million tickets while remaining on top for 14 days, indicating a significant drop in cinema-goers these days. 

According to data from the Korea Film Council, the total number of moviegoers stood at roughly seven-point-five million in March, which is almost half the 14-point-seven million logged in the same month in 2019, the year before the industry was hit hard by the pandemic.