상반기 극장 관객 최다...국내•외 영화 모두 흥행

Cinemas in South Korea saw an increase... in both the number of tickets sold and total revenues in the first half... thanks to a slew of big hits.
The trend is likely to continue throughout the year,... with more highly-anticipated films ready to hit the big screen in the second half.
Yoon Jung-min has details.
Cinemas in South Korea enjoyed a boom in the first half of this year,... with the number of movie-goers and ticket sales both hitting record highs.
According to data by the Korean Film Council on Thursday,... over 109 million movie tickets were sold from January to June,... up 13-point-5 percent from a year ago.
Total box office revenues rose 16 percent on-year... to more than 789-point-5 million U.S. dollars during the same period.
Viewership for Korean films rose to nearly 56-point-9 million,... taking up more than half of all tickets sold... for six years running.
Among the films, 'Extreme Job' directed by Lee Byung-hun and 'Parasite' by Bong Joon-ho were big hits,... each attracting around 10 million viewers as of July.
Imports attracted 52-point-4 million viewers,.. on the back of the popularity of Marvel's 'Avengers: Endgame' and Disney's 'Aladdin'.
"Movies are one of the most popular forms of entertainment in South Korea. It takes up a major share of culture activities compared to performances and exhibitions. There is a large number of potential viewers here and blockbuster films turn them into actual viewers."
The film council expects the cinema boom to continue in the latter half,... with many highly-anticipated films slated for release in Korea, including 'Lion King', 'Tazza: One Eyed Jack' and 'Frozen 2' and more.
Yoon Jung-min, Arirang News.