Korean Box Office Climbs 15.7% as The Odyssey Opens to 1.87 Million Admissions

Korea’s theatrical market grew 15.7% week over week in the first full week of August 2026, driven almost entirely by one film: The Odyssey, which opened to 1,874,197 admissions and 20.5 billion won in sales, the biggest debut of the summer so far. The newcomer was not enough to dethrone Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which stayed at number one with 26.0 billion won and 2,528,076 admissions for the week, pushing its cumulative total to 5,916,401 tickets sold, according to data from the Korean Film Council’s KOBIS tracking system.

A Two-Film Race at the Top

The week belonged to two titles. Spider-Man: Brand New Day, now past its opening frame, still sold more than 2.5 million tickets — a hold that keeps it on pace to challenge the year’s admissions leaders. The Odyssey’s 1.87 million weekly admissions came almost entirely from its launch: its cumulative count stands at just 1,874,821, meaning virtually every ticket it has sold arrived in these seven days.

The gap to third place illustrates how top-heavy the market remains. Heartsping: The Legend of the Whale Jewel, the family animation sequel, took third with 3.8 billion won from 407,312 admissions — less than a fifth of The Odyssey’s weekly take. Still, the concentration of revenue in the top three films eased slightly, from 92.5% to 91.1%, as the mid-table found marginally more room.

Holdovers Slip While Family Titles Hang On

Below the top two, the chart mostly moved downward: five films fell in the rankings against only one riser. Hope, the long-running fourth-place title, added 283,329 admissions to reach a cumulative 4,393,881 — a notable milestone for a film now deep into its run. Animated holdovers filled out the middle of the chart, with Minions & Monsters (49,350 weekly admissions), Toy Story 5 (27,166, now at 2.94 million cumulative), and Moana (20,986, past the one-million mark at 1,020,935) continuing to draw family audiences in the tail end of summer vacation season.

The Korean drama What Should I Have Done? placed eighth with 25,720 admissions, nearly matching seventh-place David in revenue despite the lower ticket count.

Conan Franchise Enters Quietly

The week’s second new entry, Detective Conan: The Fallen Angel of the Highway, debuted in tenth place with 8,828 admissions and 113 million won. The Japanese animation franchise has historically built its Korean numbers over longer runs rather than opening weekends, so its trajectory over the coming weeks will show whether this installment follows that pattern or fades quickly against the crowded summer slate.

Where the Momentum Points

The 15.7% weekly gain confirms that August’s tentpole pipeline is doing its job, but the market’s health still rests on very few shoulders: nine of every ten won spent at Korean cinemas this week went to just three films. The Odyssey’s second-week hold — and whether Spider-Man: Brand New Day can sustain its multi-million weekly pace toward the six-million cumulative mark it is about to cross — will determine whether the growth carries into the back half of the month.