Moana Storms Korea's Box Office as Weekly Sales Climb 4.7%

South Korea’s theatrical market strengthened in the week of 2026-W28, with total box-office revenue rising 4.7% from the prior week on the back of a strong debut for the animated feature Moana, which opened directly at No. 1. Two new titles cracked the top ten, and the market’s biggest films pulled a larger share of overall spending than they had a week earlier.

A Chart Reshuffled at the Top

Moana led the week with ₩5,639,412,780 in sales and 511,469 admissions. Because those admissions match its cumulative total, the figure reflects a single week of release — a clean opening at the summit rather than a slow climb. The film displaced the incumbents beneath it, none of which advanced in rank.

Holding second place was Nundongja, which drew 434,558 viewers for ₩4,565,317,300 and pushed its running total to 1,277,248 admissions. Toy Story 5 rounded out the podium in third with ₩3,785,059,510 and 361,826 admissions for the week, extending its cumulative audience to 2,580,314 — the largest running tally among the current top three.

The week’s second debut, David, entered at No. 5 with 59,310 admissions and ₩601,145,630, opening just behind the veteran title Gunche, which took fourth on 72,022 admissions despite a cumulative audience of 5,914,319 that dwarfs every other film on the chart — a sign of a long run now winding down.

Concentration Tightens Toward the Leaders

The most telling shift was not in the rankings but in how spending distributed across them. The top three films accounted for 77.2% of weekly revenue, up from 74.0% the week before. That 3.2-percentage-point gain points to a market increasingly driven by its marquee releases, with Moana’s opening and Toy Story 5’s continued draw absorbing a growing majority of ticket spending while titles further down the chart competed for a thinner slice.

That dynamic showed in the lower half of the top ten, where every one of the seven returning films slipped in rank. Marty Supreme placed sixth on 31,828 admissions (₩345,936,710), followed by Wild Thing in seventh with 29,618 admissions and a cumulative 1,333,233. The animated Doraemon: Nobita’s New Undersea Adventure held eighth on 17,093 admissions, while The Backrooms took ninth with 16,980 admissions against a running total of 1,209,069. Greenland 2: Migration closed the chart in tenth on 16,971 admissions.

Reading the Week

The 4.7% revenue gain, paired with two fresh entries and a rising concentration ratio, suggests the uptick was powered by new supply at the top rather than broad strength across the slate. Moana carried the debut spotlight, David added a second opening lower down, and the established hits either faded or ceded ground. With the leading trio now commanding better than three-quarters of the box office, the coming weeks will hinge on whether the new arrivals can hold their audiences or whether the market’s momentum thins once the opening surge passes.