Korean Box Office Up 42% In 2026 H1, Driven By ‘The King’s Warden’ & Other Local Hits; ‘Project Hail Mary’ Tops Imports
South Korea clocked a 41.9% increase in box office revenue in the first half of 2026, according to figures released today from the Korean Film Council (KOFIC), driven by local hits including The King’s Warden, Colony and Salmokji: Whispering Water.
KOFIC figures reveal that overall box office from January to June 2026 reached $396.6M (KRW579BN), compared to $279M (KRW408BN) in the same period last year. Admissions also increased during the period – up by 34.2%, compared to the first half of last year, to reach an encouraging 57 million.
Korean films powered the recovery with a whopping 81.7% year-on-year increase in revenue to $254M (KRW370.2BN) and a 74.9% increase in admissions to 37.37 million.
Compared to pre-pandemic levels, revenue for Korean films recovered to 94.2% of the average during the first halves of 2017–2019 (KRW392.9BN). Korean films also accounted for a 63.9% market share of overall revenue and 65.5% in admissions.
The King’s Warden, Jang Hang-jun’s period drama starring Yoo Hae-jin, Park Ji-hoon, Yoo Ji-tae, topped the first half year box office with $111.7M (KRW163.1BN) from 16.9 million ticket sales, also becoming the highest-grossing Korean film of all time. It’s also the first Korean title in two years to cross the 10 million admissions benchmark and is second of all time in terms of admissions behind The Admiral: Roaring Currents.
Korean films also took the number two and three positions in the half year chart – Yeon Sang-ho’s zombie thriller Colony, which premiered in Cannes Midnight Screenings, grossed $41M (KRW60.5BN) while low-budget horror Salmokji: Whispering Water pulled in $22.8M (KRW33.3BN).
Foreign films saw a 2.3% increase in revenue during the January-June period, with a combined $143M (KRW208.8BN), but ticket sales decreased by 6.9% to 19.68 million. Project Hail Mary was the highest-grossing import with $22.6M (KRW33BN) followed by Avatar: Fire And Ash and Michael. A24’s Backrooms was the highest-grossing indie film among both local and foreign releases with $8.5M (KRW12.4BN) in revenue and 1.16 million admissions.
KOFIC figures also revealed the growing importance of special format screenings with revenue from brands including IMAX, 4D, ScreenX and Dolby Cinema increasing by 56.3% year-on-year to $31.3M (KRW45.7bn) and powering a big chunk of the box office for Avatar: Fire And Ash and Project Hail Mary.
Korean studio Showbox, which released all of the top three films, was the biggest distributor during the period with a 48.6% market share, followed by Disney which ranked second with a 13.8% market share.
