25 Million Viewers Gone... Korean Cinema Loses Its Narrative [The Second Take]

Only One Film Surpassed 5 Million Viewers: Korean Cinema in Crisis
A Year Marked by the Absence of Storytelling, Retreating into Melodrama and Exposition
A Catastrophe Created by a Production Structure That Disregards Professional Screenwriters

Yonhap News Agency

Korean films have long maintained a solid box office market share of around 50%. This year, however, that balance has collapsed. As of the 22nd, the share stands at only 41.5%, which is 15.8 percentage points lower than the 57.3% recorded during the same period last year. Audience share also dropped by 15.1 percentage points to 42.4%. The decline becomes even clearer when looking at the number of moviegoers: from 67.8 million last year to 42.79 million this year.

This is not a temporary slump. It is a warning sign that the overall momentum of Korean cinema has been lost. Only one film, "Zombie Daughter," attracted more than 5 million viewers. Even when expanding the range to movies that drew over 3 million people, there are just two: "Zombie Daughter" and "Opposition Party." Korean cinema could only watch helplessly as Hollywood blockbusters and Japanese animated films thrived.

Industry insiders are pleading that Korean cinema is on the verge of collapse. However, audiences remain cold. The reason is not simply a lack of spectacles. Viewers feel that there are no longer any well-crafted stories worth investing their time in. The repeated melodrama disguised as genre films and the collapse of narrative structure have led to mistrust.

For example, this year's horror and occult films donned alluring exteriors, but their narrative drive sharply declined in the second half. Rather than building up fear or anxiety, these films focused on verbose explanations of the universe through characters' dialogues. At moments when genre-driven tension should have been pushed to the limit, they inevitably reverted to the conventions of Korean family drama.

Yonhap News Agency

The same issues plagued films that claimed to be comedies or action movies. Most focused on stringing together one-off jokes and situations rather than delivering the essential pleasures of their genres. Characters' choices were made mechanically, based on the need to be funny, rather than being the result of accumulated conflict.

Fantasy blockbusters backed by massive capital also failed to translate their vast universes into cinematic events, instead dumping key information as if giving a briefing through dialogue. When predetermined fate took precedence over characters' internal motivations, there was no emotional space left for the audience to enter.

The result is that structural flaws left unresolved at the script stage were not fixed during filming or editing, and made it to market as is. While technical skills are world-class, the blueprint-the narrative-was fundamentally weak. The root cause lies in the production structure. Directors routinely attach their names to screenwriting and adaptation, treating the story not as something to be thoroughly vetted but as an accessory to their directorial concept. Structural defects that should have been addressed during the script phase were glossed over as "directorial intent," and production pressed ahead regardless.

Only a handful of directors have the capability to oversee the entire creative process. Yet, Korean commercial cinema does not respect professional screenwriters. As the practice of not checking directors' scripts has accumulated, films with interesting premises but unconvincing character choices and emotional arcs are repeatedly produced. This is also why melodrama is used as an escape at a dead end, rather than as a logical conclusion to the narrative.

Yonhap News Agency

In the expanding online video service (OTT) environment, films that fail to answer the question "Does this need to be seen in theaters?" are inevitably ignored. Audiences want more than just spectacle; they seek well-crafted narratives that are worth their time and investment. Only when a film delivers stories that foster social empathy and maintains consistency with genre conventions will viewers be willing to open their wallets. Before the film industry begs for help, it must reflect on whether it has deceived audiences with illogical emotions and unstructured ideas.