The days when the “10 million viewers” movies were born are now in the past. With the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic from February, the number of moviegoers visiting the theater dropped sharply. Let alone the box office hit, movies that surpassed the break-even points are hard to find.
Last year, five movies drew 10 million audience, but this year, there is not a single movie that recorded more than 5 million admissions. So far, there are only 8 movies that have surpassed the break-even points. And considering the fact that the pandemic is still ongoing, it’s pretty impressive.
The first movie to break its break-even point was Hitman: Agent Jun, starring Kwon Sang Woo. Its break-even point stood at 2.4 million, which the movie reached on February 17. The second movie to exceed its break-even point was The Man Standing Next. The break-even point was initially estimated at 5 million moviegoers, but the final number stood at 4.75 million. However, it is rumored that the company has actually surpassed the break-even point by earning higher-than-expected in the secondary market. The third film is Honest Candidate, a comedy film starring Ra Mi Ran. The movie attracted a total of 1.52 million moviegoers, and the break-even point was 1.5 million.
As the number of COVID-19 confirmed patients skyrocketed in March, the number of moviegoers was frighteningly decreased, and the fourth movie that surpassed its break-even point came out in summer. #ALIVE, starring Park Shin Hye and Yoo Ah In, originally had the break-even point of 2.2 million admissions, but it fell to 1.96 million after making higher-than-expected sales in the VOD market. The final score for the movie was 1,903,727 viewers.
Peninsula, which was released in July, then surpassed the break-even point of 2.5 million. Initially, the break-even point was estimated to be around 6 million, but it was reduced to 2.5 million after making a great profit in pre-sales. The movie attracted 3.81 million moviegoers. Deliver Us From Evil, which has a break-even point of 3.5 million, was released when the spread of COVID-19 dialed down a bit and recorded 4.35 million admissions in the end. With the R-rated Final Cut version released in October, the movie attracted 35,000 viewers.
The low-budget film Voice of Silence, starring Yoo Ah In and Yoo Jae Myung, also surpassed its break-even point. It totaled 400,000 audience, which is higher than the break-even point of 350,000. The most recent film that surpassed its break-even point is Pawn, a movie released in the Chuseok season. On November 9, more than a month after its release, the movie broke its break-even point of 1.7 million.
Since Pawn, Samjin Company English Class and Collectors kept up their pace and attracted more than 1 million viewers. Attention is focusing on whether the two films, which were released during these difficult times, can break their break-even points.
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