South Korea Sets Movie Attendance Record for Fifth Consecutive Year

More people in South Korea went to the movies in 2015 than ever before, data from the country’s official box office tracker revealed on Tuesday. 

The number of moviegoers in the country has increased every year since 2011. More than 215.2 million tickets were sold in Korean cinemas from Jan. 1 to Monday, surpassing last year’s record of 215.1 million, according to data from the Korean Film Council (South Korea uses admissions rather than revenue as its primary box office measure).

The remarkable resurgence of the domestic Korean film industry has driven the rise. South Korean films have taken greater market share than Hollywood imports every year since 2011.

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Four of the top five highest-grossing movies at the Korean box office in 2015 were local (The Avengers: Age of Ultron ranked third for the year with $75.5 million).

Hollywood led the first half of the year, but local action thrillers Veteran and Assassination tipped the balance back towards the home team, dominating the latter half of the summer with grosses of $80.7 million and $84 million, respectively. Both movies sold well over 10 million tickets, meaning over one fifth of the entire South Korean population went to see them.

Final 2015 South Korean box office data and market share will be released by the Korean Film Council in the coming weeks.