SOUTH KOREA 2010-2014
(1) BY THE NUMBERS
(A) MARKET STATISTICS
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 AVERAGE
Screens 2,003 1,974 2,081 2,184 2,281 2,105 Theatrical admissions (millions) 149.1 159 194.8 213.3 215.1 186.3 Per capita attendance 2.9 3.1 3.8 4.2 4.3 36.6 Box office (EUR millions) 698.6 823.6 1,035.9 1,023.7 1,103.6 937.1 Releases 388 297 426 905 1,117 627 Domestic releases 126 93 140 183 232 155 US releases 123 117 117 265 258 176 European releases 50 49 91 294 221 141 German releases 6 7 3 5 13 7 Domestic market share 46.5% 51.9% 58.8% 58.7% 50.1% 53.2% German market share 0.08% 0.51% 0.08% 0.24% 0.74% 0330%
*EUR equivalents are calculated throughout at the exchange rate for December 31 of the year in question.
1 Market Study South Korea 2010-2014, Oct 2015, by Split Screen for German Films
South Korea: Market Shares 2010-2014 70
60
50
40 Domestic 30 German 20
10
Percentage of office box annual 0 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
South Korea: Theatrical Releases 2010-2014 1200 1000 Total 800 Domestic 600 US 400 European 200 German 0 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Average
2 Market Study South Korea 2010-2014, Oct 2015, by Split Screen for German Films
(B) THEATRICAL RELEASES
TITLE DISTRIBUTOR RELEASE DATE BOX OFFICE $US 2010 GERMAN FILMS (100% OR MAJORITY CO-PRODUCTIONS)
THE LAST STATION (Ger/Rus/UK) Mediasoft Films 16.12.10 402,110 GELIEBTE CLARA (Ger/Fr/Hun) AUD 16.12.10 88,273 DIE TÜR (Ger) Company L 02.09.10 84,558 DAS WEISSE BAND (Ger/Aut/It/Sp) Peterpan Pictures 01.07.10 72,378 WÜSTENBLUME (Ger/Aut) Old Face 22.04.10 57,668 NORDWAND (Ger/Aut/Swz) JMD Entertainment 03.06.10 47,308
2010 GERMAN MINORITY CO-PRODUCTIONS
RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE (UK/Ger/US) Sony Pictures Releasing Buena Vista Korea 15.09.10 12,963,377 THE GHOST (Fr/Ger/UK) Sidus FNK 02.06.10 1,094,322 HAPPILY N'EVER AFTER 2 (US/Ger) Showbox 25.02.10 378,434 DISCO ORMENE (Den/Ger) AE Entertainment 04.02.10 51,165 UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES (Thai/Ger/Fr/Sp/UK) BaekDu-DaeGan Films Co 16.09.10 36,794 A MATTER OF SIZE (Isr/Ger/Fr) Valjean International 15.04.10 15,256 IL Y A LONGTEMPS QUE JE T'AIME (Fr/Ger) With Cinema 07.01.10 11,908
2011 GERMAN FILMS (100% OR MAJORITY CO-PRODUCTIONS)
THE THREE MUSKETEERS (Ger/Fr/UK/US) Lotte Entertainment 12.10.11 5,170,426 DIE FRISEUSE (Ger) Jinjin Pictures 30.06.11 95,215 JASPER UND DAS LIMONADENKOMPLOTT (Ger/Fr) Lotte Entertainment 18.08.11 57,264 SOUL KITCHEN (Ger/Fr/It) Sponge Entertainment 17.02.11 42,863 TANZTRÄUME (Ger) Jinjin Pictures 20.01.11 35,450 DREI (Ger) TCast 29.09.11 34,223 VISION - AUS DEM LEBEN DER HILDEGARD VON BINGEN (Ger) PoongKyung SoRi 24.11.11 34,182
3 Market Study South Korea 2010-2014, Oct 2015, by Split Screen for German Films
2011 GERMAN MINORITY CO-PRODUCTIONS
UNKNOWN (US/Ger/UK/Fr) Warner Bros. Korea 17.02.11 3,503,340 HANNA (US/UK/Ger) Sony Pictures Releasing Buena Vista Korea 14.04.11 1,464,299 LOURDES (Aut/Ger/Fr) AUD 17.02.11 55,687 LE HAVRE (Fin/Fr/Ger) Challan 08.12.11 34,791 ANTICHRIST (Den/Ger) Mars Entertainment 14.04.11 22,781 FAUBOURG ‘36 (Fr/Ger/Cz) Jinjin Pictures 17.02.11 5,834
2012 GERMAN FILMS (100% OR MAJORITY CO-PRODUCTIONS)
RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION (Ger/Can) Sony Pictures (South Korea) 13.09.12 4,227,303 KONFERENZ DER TIERE (Ger) SBS 08.08.12 1,605,278 A DANGEROUS METHOD (Ger/Can/UK/Swz) KT&G Sansangmadang 10.05.12 92,441
2012 GERMAN MINORITY CO-PRODUCTIONS
NIKO 2 – LENTÄJÄVELJEKSET (Fin/Den/Ire/Ger) n/a 25.12.12 2,399,902 THE VOW (US/Brz/Fr/Aus/UK/Ger) Sony Pictures (South Korea) 14.03.12 1,625,045 TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY (UK/Fr/Ger) Fine Pictures Co 09.02.12 373,288 STREETDANCE 2 (UK/Ger/It) Pancinema 12.07.12 165,855
2013 GERMAN FILMS (100% OR MAJORITY CO-PRODUCTIONS)
CLOUD ATLAS (Ger/US) N.E.W 10.01.13 3,023,466 RITTER ROST - EISENHART & VOLL VERBEULT (Ger) Apex Entertainment Co 18.07.13 250,627 VINCENT WILL MEER (Ger) Sejong Communications 27.06.13 29,727 BARBARA (Ger) Sponge Entertainment 21.03.13 8,479 NANGA PARBAT (Ger) Mountain Pictures 12.12.13 3,712
2013 GERMAN MINORITY CO-PRODUCTIONS
THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS: CITY OF BONES (US/Ger/Can) Lotte Entertainment 12.09.13 3,676,161 HANSEL & GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS (US/Ger) CJ Entertainment 14.02.13 1,310,154 SONG FOR MARION (UK/Ger) n/a 18.04.13 1,256,999 4 Market Study South Korea 2010-2014, Oct 2015, by Split Screen for German Films
RUSH (US/UK/Ger) Lotte Entertainment 09.10.13 603,613 MEDIANERAS (Arg/Ger/Sp) Jinjin Pictures 12.09.13 151,640 MR. NOBODY (Ger/Fr/Bel/Can) Bubble & Joy Pictures 24.10.13 107,419 BAL (Tur/Ger) n/a 26.09.13 12,363 PARADIES: LIEBE (Aut/Ger/Fr) n/a 17.10.13 10,928 2 DAYS IN NEW YORK (Fr/Ger/Bel) AUD 29.08.13 n/a POULET AUX PRUNES (Fr/Ger/Bel) TimeStory 20.06.13 n/a
2014 GERMAN FILMS (100% OR MAJORITY CO-PRODUCTIONS)
TARZAN 3D (Ger) Sidus Pictures 09.01.14 4,158,722 LOVE, ROSIE (Ger/UK) Next Entertainment World 11.12.14 1,885,103 DIE BIENE MAJA – DER KINOFILM (Ger/Aus) Sejong Communications 03.08.14 1,874,090 DER 7BTE ZWERG (Ger) Sane Company 24.12.14 880,388 NIGHT TRAIN TO LISBON (Ger/Swz/Por) Musee Entertainment 05.06.14 499,061 HECTOR AND THE SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS (Ger/Can) ThanksCo Company 27.11.14 344,606 CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA (Ger/Fr/Swz) TCast 18.12.14 145,037 DER TEUFELSGEIGER (Ger/Aut) Focus & Company 24.04.14 115,271 FÜNF FREUNDE 3 (Ger) Company L 27.11.14 28,347 FACK JU GÖHTE (Ger) Sejong Communications 20.11.14 10,474 DER MONDMANN (Ger/Fr/Ire) Mountain Pictures 13.11.14 6,758 DIE FRAU HINTER DER WAND (Ger) Company L 18.12.14 63 KREUZWEG (Ger) Company L 09.10.14 n/a
2014 GERMAN MINORITY CO-PRODUCTIONS
POMPEII (Can/Ger) Daisy & Synergy 20.02.14 9,576,287 ANONYMOUS (UK/Ger) n/a 20.02.14 8,252,627 THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL (US/Ger) Twentieth Century Fox (South Korea) 20.03.14 5,596,261 LA BELLE ET LA BÊTE (Fr/Ger) UniKorea Culture 19.06.14 2,315,779 THE MONUMENTS MEN (US/Ger) Twentieth Century Fox (South Korea) 27.02.14 390,527 NYMPHOMANIAC: VOLUME 1 (Den/Ger/Fr/Swe/Bel) AtnineFilm 19.06.14 336,190 ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE (UK/Ger/Fr/Cyp) Challan 09.01.14 216,527 A MOST WANTED MAN (UK/US/Ger) Dreamwest Pictures 07.08.14 108,423 WADJDA (Saudi/Ger) Chris Lee Pictures 19.06.14 47,825 5 Market Study South Korea 2010-2014, Oct 2015, by Split Screen for German Films
MAPS TO THE STARS (Can/US/Fr/Ger) Doki Entertainment 25.12.14 33,542 THE CONGRESS (Isr/Ger/Pol/Fr/Bel) Cinema De Manon 05.06.14 7,416 NYMPHOMANIAC: VOLUME 2 (Den/Ger/Fr/Swe/Bel) AtnineFilm 03.07.14 5,233 LA RELIGIEUSE (Fr/Ger/Bel) Green Narae Media 23.01.14 1,733 WAKOLDA (Arg/Sp/Ger/Fr) Company L 29.04.14 515 THE LUNCHBOX (Ind/Fr/Ger) PeterPan Pictures 10.04.14 355 LES SALAUDS (Fr/Ger) Challan 02.10.14 n/a
(C) TOP 10 GERMAN FILMS IN SOUTH KOREA
ADMISSIONS BOX OFFICE (EUR)
THE THREE MUSKETEERS (2011) 738,632 3,991,569 RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION (2012) 630,941 3,204,296 TARZAN 3D (2014) 602,713 3,435,104 CLOUD ATLAS (2013) 458,101 2,195,036 LOVE, ROSIE (2014) 273,203 1,557,095 DIE BIENE MAJA - DER KINOFILM (2014) 271,607 1,547,998 KONFERENZ DER TIERE (2012) 239,594 1,216,801 DER 7BTE ZWERG (2012) 127,692 727,200 NIGHT TRAIN TO LISBON (2014) 72,328 412,670 HECTOR AND THE SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS (2014) 49,943 284,645
Average admissions for a German film in South Korea, 2010-2014: 105,931 Average box office for a German film in South Korea, 2010-2014: EUR 571,225
6 Market Study South Korea 2010-2014, Oct 2015, by Split Screen for German Films
(2) DISTRIBUTORS OF GERMAN FILMS IN SOUTH KOREA
(A) STUDIO AFFILIATE
Sony Pictures (South Korea) 2012 RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION
(B) INDEPENDENTS
4 TITLES
Company L 2010 DIE TÜR 2014 DIE FRAU HINTER DER WAND; FÜNF FREUNDE; KREUZWEG
2 TITLES
Jinjin Pictures 2011 DIE FRISEUSE; TANZTRÄUME
Lotte Entertainment 2011 JASPER UND DAS LIMONADENKOMPLOTT 2011 THE THREE MUSKETEERS
Mountain Pictures 2013 NANGA PARBAT 2014 DER MONDMANN
Sejong Communications 2014 DIE BIENE MAJA - DER KINOFILM; FACK JU GÖHTE
Sponge Entertainment 2011 SOUL KITCHEN 2013 BARBARA 7 Market Study South Korea 2010-2014, Oct 2015, by Split Screen for German Films
TCast 2011 DREI 2014 CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA
OTHERS
Apex Entertainment Co 2013 RITTER ROST - EISENHART UND VOLL VERBEULT
AUD 2010 GELIEBTE CLARA
Focus & Company 2014 DER TEUFELSGEIGER
JMD Entertainment 2010 NORDWAND
KT&G Sansangmadang 2012 A DANGEROUS METHOD
Mediasoft Films 2010 THE LAST STATION
Musee Entertainment 2014 NIGHT TRAIN TO LISBON
N.E.W. 2013 CLOUD ATLAS
Next Entertainment World 2014 LOVE, ROSIE
8 Market Study South Korea 2010-2014, Oct 2015, by Split Screen for German Films
Old Face 2010 WÜSTENBLUME
Peterpan Pictures 2010 DAS WEISSE BAND
PoongKyung SoRi 2011 VISION - AUS DEM LEBEN DER HILDEGARD VON BINGEN
Sane Company 2014 DER 7BTE ZWERG
SBS 2012 KONFERENZ DER TIERE
Sidus Pictures 2014 TARZAN 3D
ThanksCo Company 2014 HECTOR AND THE SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS
(3) DVD AND VOD IN SOUTH KOREA
The Korean Film Council (KOFIC), generally restricts itself to the theatrical market, and statistical information on the home entertainment market does not appear to be available. The prevailing belief in the Korean industry is that the DVD business is on the way out, unable to compete with rampant piracy on the one hand and the fastest average broadband rates in the world on the other. In 2001, for instance, there were roughly 10,000 video rental and retail stores in Korea; by 2008, this had shrunk to 3,500 – a decline of 65%. DVD revenue appears to have plummeted even more sharply: according to a May 2011 KOFIC report, turnover had shrunk from KRW 800 billion (€540 million) in 2002 to KRW220 billion (€149 million) in 2008 – a decline of 72.5%. This is in inverse proportion to the growth of the theatrical market over the same period.
The business is not entirely dead, however, and a comprehensive analysis of the titles available to Korean buyers on the pan-Asia online shopping site yesasia.com suggests well-stocked shelves and a good range of European titles. The following chart includes non-Korean and non-English-language movies only. The German titles are too numerous to list here, but cover the usual range, from 1920s classics to contemporary movies, and for once include such
9 Market Study South Korea 2010-2014, Oct 2015, by Split Screen for German Films
video stand-bys as Bavarian sex comedies (a box set is available). What sales traffic there is, we have no way of knowing. But availability of titles is, in any area of the film business, an essential starting point – a foot in the door, in other words, albeit a very tentative one.
South Korea: European DVD titles available to buy on yesasia.com
France Spain Italy Germany Poland Sweden Denmark Portugal Netherlands
VOD is even harder to quantify and we have been unable to find any site with accessible (i.e non-password-protected) content information in either Korean or English. However we are largely confident about the following:
• with Korea still the country with the highest average internet connection speed in the world (21 Mbt/s – 40% faster than nearest rival Japan), the conditions are ideal for content to be delivered by internet, as is most of the country’s TV and pay-TV programming; • the VOD market is dominated by offshoots of two of Korea’s most powerful corporations: KT (Olleh) TV, owned and operated by KT Corporation (formerly Korea Telecom); and Samsung u+TV, operated by the company that supplies most of the world’s smart TVs; • branded content seems to work, to judge by the decision of US majors Warner Bros., Sony and Disney to set up their own VOD platforms;
10 Market Study South Korea 2010-2014, Oct 2015, by Split Screen for German Films
• on the basis of patterns found in other forms of home entertainment, content is likely to be 50% Korean, 45% Hollywood, with the rest of the world supplying the smallest slice of the VOD cake.
For German films, the message seems to be that all-platform deals are the only option, in the hope that a Korean partner will see a way to squeeze some value out of the last link in the audiovisual chain.
(4) SOUTH KOREA: COMMENTARY
South Korea has pretty much taken over from Japan as the cinematic powerhouse of East Asia, with an energetic presence at the world’s film markets and a new generation of filmmakers gaining renown on the international film festival circuit. While the theatrical market seemed to be struggling to cope with the instant-gratification challenge of the internet at the end of the 2000s, the theatrical business seems subsequently not only to have survived but to be prospering.
Per capita annual attendance, which had dropped below three visits a year in 2010, has surged back to 4.3 – one of the highest rates in the world (France’s is 3.2, the US’s 3.8) – and other indicators are equally positive. Over the five-year period surveyed here, admissions soared in Korea by 44% and box office by 68% (although some of the latter may be explained by increased ticket prices and exchange-rate fluctuations). There is also, it should be noted, one statistic that defies interpretation: according to KOFIC, 1,117 films were released in 2014 – almost four times the number for 2010. Since there are no other signs of this cinematic flood (which would amount to 22 new releases a week throughout the year), we must assume that the criteria have been extended to include non-theatrical releases – or, more likely, direct-to-VOD titles.
Korean audiences remain fiercely loyal to local films, which were until comparatively recently protected by import quotas. Thus the audience for foreign films, including Hollywood blockbusters, averages out at around 100 million, with that for foreign films much lower. Acquisitions executives, however, continue to trawl the world’s festivals and markets in search of product and, as the details of distributors of German films in 2 (b) above indicates, the number of boutique operations continues to escalate. An appetite for less commercial fare certainly seems to exist.
The VOD market, meanwhile, is taking flight. The DVD era may be over, but the delivery of image-based home entertainment remains a vibrant part of the Korean economy. The balance, however, is inevitably shifting towards new technological platforms. Cable is especially well-established in Korea, so IPTV suppliers are struggling to be able to offer a competitive sign-up package. But the potential rewards are so huge and the pockets of platforms such as KT and Samsung so deep that this is more a speed bump than a barrier.
11 Market Study South Korea 2010-2014, Oct 2015, by Split Screen for German Films
(5) GERMAN FILMS IN SOUTH KOREA
Despite the array of distributors involved – or perhaps because there was no single distributor regularly championing them – Korea has remained a relatively minor territory for German films, with the only ones to make regular impact being those that could ‘pass for’ Hollywood (the usual suspects: THE THREE MUSKETEERS, RESIDENT EVIL and CLOUD ATLAS), plus children’s movies such as TARZAN 3D, DIE BIENE MAJA and RITTER ROST.
Arthouse titles such as DAS WEISSE BAND, SOUL KITCHEN and BARBARA, which generally achieved crossover status in other markets, sold less than 20,000 tickets between them in Korea – with the latter, according to sales agent The Match Factory, effectively shown unauthorised and unpaid for by distributor Sponge Entertainment.
The trend, however, seems to be upwards, with half the Top 10 Films 2010-2014 released in 2014.
There is insufficient data to draw any conclusions about VOD, but the DVD retailer analysed above keeps a good back-catalogue of German films alongside more recent releases.
Theatrically, however, while the number of German stories and arthouse titles released make up the majority of openings – with a particular surge in 2014, when double the usual number of films opened – they accounted for just 7% of box-office returns to German films. Overall, in a market of 50 million people delivering an average of EUR 937 million at the box office, German films could manage at best (2014) a box-office share of 0.74%.
The charts on the following page show numbers of releases and box office revenue for the key groups identified in the introduction to this Report.
12 Market Study South Korea 2010-2014, Oct 2015, by Split Screen for German Films
South Korea: Titles released by category
Festival & arthouse English-language Children's films German stories
South Korea: Categories by box office
Festival & arthouse English-language Children's films German stories
(6) SOUTH KOREA: SOURCES AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
XE Currency Converter, HAN Cinema, KOFIC (Korean Film Council), KISA (Korea Internet & Security Agency), ITS (International Telecommunications Society), yesasia.com, Cinando, Unifrance, Box Office Mojo, European Audiovisual Observatory.
13 Market Study South Korea 2010-2014, Oct 2015, by Split Screen for German Films