H1 2009 box office and admissions for Korea, Italy and Norway

Jean Noh, writing in ScreenDaily.com, reports the latest South Korean box office data from the Korean Film Council (KOFIC). Box office gross reached a record high in the first half of 2009, totalling $375.68 million (KW476.8 billion), an increase of 5% on the same period in 2008.

Cinema admissions rose by 3%, to a total of 72.17 million. South Korean films saw their market share increase by 8% to stand at 45%, the same proportion as US films. Chinese films shared 4% of the market, European films 5% and Japanese films 1%.

Over at Variety.com, Nick Vivarelli reports Italian box office numbers for the first half of 2009, courtesy of Cinetel. The picture is decidedly less upbeat for the first six months of the year: cinema admissions fell by 2% during the period, to around 50 million. US films shared 65% of the total box office gross for the first six months of the year, amassing a box office haul of $292 million. Home grown titles took $136 million at the box office, and a market share of 24%.

The picture is altogether better in Norway, according to figures reported by Annika Pham, writing in Cineuropa.net. Cinema admissions rose by 8% during the first half of 2009, to stand at 5.6 million, and local films scored a record market share of 27%.

And finally... Zachary Pincus-Roth has written a splendid piece in Slate’s Summer Movies Special about why journalists don't account for inflation when they report box office records, resulting in ‘misleading speculation’ during the blockbuster season:

‘When The Dark Knight earned $158 million in its opening weekend last summer, journalists went gaga over the possibility that it would unseat Titanic as the all-time domestic box office leader. But the race was utter bunk. Accounting for inflation, the true record holder is Gone With the Wind, which—in 2009 dollars—earned over 50 percent more than Titanic and almost three times as much as The Dark Knight.’

This put me in mind of the British Film Institute's Ultimate Film Chart, a list of the all-time top 100 films based on UK cinema admissions estimates, which neatly sidesteps the inflation issue and reveals some interesting facets of British cinema going habits over the decades. Unfortunately it was compiled a few years back and hasn't been updated since: a case of stagnation, rather than inflation.

Comments

[Jim Barratt]

Interested readers might like to know that back in August 05 David Hancock, Head of Film and Cinema at Screen Digest, wrote a report about the all time top 100 films at the US box office. He used inflation-adjusted numbers to provide 'a
new perspective on the evolution of the movie system since the early days.' The report looks at the top performing titles along with analyses by decade, distributor and genre.

Details can be found here:
http://www.screendigest.com/reports/mini/2005/2005-08-01_f6-n/view.html#1.0