Korean Box Office Falls 29.9% as The Odyssey Crosses 10 Million Admissions

Korea’s theatrical market cooled sharply in the week of August 31 through September 6, with total weekly ticket revenue falling 29.9% from the prior week — even as The Odyssey pushed past the 10 million cumulative admissions mark, the country’s traditional benchmark for a blockbuster. Four films entered the top 10, but none of them came close to offsetting the pullback at the top of the chart.

A 10-Million Milestone at the Top

The Odyssey held first place with ₩13.43 billion in weekly revenue from 1,163,094 admissions, lifting its cumulative total to 10,027,961 tickets sold. That weekly haul was roughly 6.2 times the take of second-place Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which earned ₩2.17 billion from 243,640 admissions and now stands at 8,792,022 cumulative admissions — still short of the 10 million line its rival just crossed.

The gap between first and second place, in other words, remains the defining feature of the chart. Even in a down week, the market’s decline was largely a story of its biggest title selling fewer tickets, not of audiences migrating elsewhere.

Four Debuts, Modest Landings

The week’s four new entries — Obsession at third, Bigwang at fifth, Sing Again at sixth, and The Intern at tenth — combined for about ₩3.28 billion, less than a quarter of what The Odyssey earned on its own. Obsession led the newcomers with ₩2.0 billion from 184,316 admissions, while Bigwang (₩635 million) and Sing Again (₩524 million) opened in the mid-table. The Intern entered with ₩122 million from 11,989 admissions.

The rest of the chart moved in one direction: no film climbed in rank, and four fell. Holdovers Gyeongju Travelogue (₩998 million, fourth) and The Last Day on Oak Street (₩225 million, seventh) rounded out the live-action field, with family and animation titles Heartsping: Legend of the Whale Jewel (cumulative 858,707 admissions) and Detective Conan: The Fallen Angel of the Highway (cumulative 420,629) holding eighth and ninth.

Concentration Eases, but Only Slightly

The share of weekly revenue captured by the top three films slipped from 84.9% to 80.6%. The four debuts spread the take marginally wider, yet four of every five won spent at the Korean box office still went to just three titles. Until a challenger opens at genuine scale, the market’s weekly fortunes will continue to rise and fall with a single film’s screen count and staying power.

By the Numbers