A scene from the movie "She Died," which has attracted 1.22 million viewers / Courtesy of Content Zio

The movie "She Died" reached 1.22 million viewers as of June 22, surpassing the 1.17 million viewers of "The Birth of Korea," and claiming a spot in the top five Korean box office hits of the year.

However, it still lags far behind the second place "The Roundup: Punishment," which has 11.49 million viewers and is currently screening, a gap of 10.27 million viewers.

The polarization of box office success in Korean cinema is intensifying. Audiences flock to films that are expected to be hits, leading to a "hit or miss" phenomenon where many films fall short of their break-even point.

This trend highlights the growing disparity between blockbuster successes and other films struggling to attract significant viewership.

According to data from the Korean Film Council on June 25, the top-grossing Korean film in the first half of this year (as of Tuesday) is "Exhuma" with 11.91 million viewers.

This is 10.2 million more than the third-place "Citizen of a Kind" (1.71 million viewers). In fourth place is "Alienoid Part 2" with 1.43 million viewers.

While the first and second place films have earned the prestigious 10 million viewers label, the third to fifth place films have barely reached the 1 million mark.

"Citizen of a Kind" and "She Died" barely surpassed the break-even point.

"Alienoid Part 2," which cost 37 billion won ($2.7 million) to produce, fell far short of its estimated break-even point of 8 million viewers.

Including "The Birth of Korea," only six Korean films have surpassed the 1 million viewer mark. "Exhuma" and "The Roundup: Punishment" alone account for 64.4 percent (23.4 million viewers) of the total Korean film viewership (36.28 million viewers).

Released last month and starring Kang Dong-won, "The Plot" garnered high expectations but has only attracted 520,000 viewers so far. Courtesy of NEW

Most films fall short of break-even point

Last year, Korean films also suffered from extreme polarization in the first half.

The top-grossing film "The Roundup: No Way Out" recorded 10.68 million viewers, while the second-place "The Negotiation" had only 1.72 million.

The release of films like "The Day" (11.85 million viewers last year alone), "Smugglers" (5.14 million), "Concrete Utopia" (3.84 million), and "Noryang: Deadly Sea" (3.43 million) in the second half slightly alleviated the polarization.

Amid this box office polarization, more and more anticipated Korean films are failing to surpass the 1 million-viewers mark.

"The Plot," starring Gang Dong-won and released on May 29, only managed to attract 520,000 viewers by June 19. With a production cost of around 13.4 billion won, it seems impossible to reach its break-even point of approximately 2 million viewers.

A scene from the film "Citizen of a Kind" / Still from "Citizen of a Kind"

Even top actors do not guarantee success

Actor Gang Dong-won has been considered a box office guarantee in theaters, with six films attracting over 5 million viewers, including "A Violent Prosecutor" (2016, 9.7 million viewers) and "1987" (2017, 7.14 million viewers). But "The Plot" is likely to receive the worst box office performance among Gang's films, following "M" (2007, 440,000 viewers) and "Vanishing Time: A Boy Who Returned" (2016, 510,000 viewers).

"Wonderland," which garnered attention with its star-studded cast including Tang Wei, Park Bo-gum, Suzy, Jung Yu-mi, Choi Woo-shik, and Gong Yoo, also seems unlikely to reach the 1 million viewer mark.

It has been viewed by 610,000 people. The break-even point for "Wonderland" is reportedly around 2.9 million viewers.

The box office polarization is likely to impact the production of Korean films. The number of films with challenging content and experimental formats is forecast to drop.

"The Korean film industry is showing a tendency to focus on genre films with narrower themes and subjects due to the extreme recession and subsequent cultural depression post-COVID-19," film critic Oh Dong-jin said. "Dark social realism films are something the current Korean film industry would never produce."

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, sister publication of The Korea times, is translated by generative AI and edited by staff of The Korea Times.