A promotional screen image of the movie "Exhuma" is seen inside a movie theater in Seoul, March 3. Yonhap

With occult mystery thriller film "Exhuma" becoming the latest box office hit in Korea attracting over 8 million in ticket sales in just 18 days of its opening, the Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) is expected to reap a handsome return for its investment into the film's production.

According to the investment banking industry, IBK directly invested approximately 1 billion won ($762,000) in the production of the movie.

As the break-even point of the film — 3.3 million viewers — was already far surpassed, the state-run bank expects a return on investment (ROI) of over 80 to 90 percent, for now. The ROI could be higher, depending on the final box office results.

Poster of "Exhuma" / Courtesy of Showbox

The bank's official told The Korea Times that the investment decision was made due mainly to the bank's acknowledgment of film director Jang Jae-hyun's abilities as a filmmaker. Jang previously directed the occult mystery thriller hit "The Priests" in 2015.

"IBK made the decision to invest in 'Exhuma,' as the bank assessed the film's artistic quality as well as commercial success potentials would be high, given that it was a project of director Jang Jae-hyun who is making his unique mark on the occult genre. Top-rated actors' participation in the film, including Choi Min-sik, Yoo Hae-jin, and Kim Go-eun, was also a reason for making the investment," the IBK official said.

It is not the first time IBK has hit the jackpot with film investments.

The bank has successfully invested, either directly or indirectly, in some of the most successful Korean films ever, all of which attracted over 10 million viewers at theaters in the country, including "The Admiral: Roaring Currents," "Ode to My Father," "Assassination," "Veteran," "Train to Busan," "Along with the Gods," "Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds," — the sequel of "Along with the Gods" — "Extreme Job," "Parasite" and "The Outlaws 2."

Poster of "Extreme Job" / Courtesy of CJ Entertainment

In particular, "Extreme Job," which recorded a whopping 16 million ticket sales, brought IBK an ROI rate of 377 percent. IBK invested 790 million won in the 2019 action comedy film.

IBK's record of success in film investment can be attributed to its team solely dedicated to cultural content.

"Recognizing that the content sector is one of the most high value-added industries, IBK decided to open up the cultural content investment team in 2012, aiming to foster it as a future growth engine through policy support," the IBK official said.

Since it newly established its cultural content team in 2012, as the first company in the domestic financial sector to do so and still the only domestic lender that operates the team solely dedicated to investing in cultural products, the bank has expanded the team over the past 13 years.

Over the 10 years from 2014 to 2023, the bank invested a total of 270.6 billion won in films and TV shows. When including investments in other sectors of the arts and cultural products, the bank has either lent or invested 7.22 trillion won so far.

Poster of "Decision to Leave" / Courtesy of CJ ENM

Also notable is that the bank considers more than just box office potential when making investment decisions.

The bank emphasized that it has made many investments in independent or arthouse films, such as "Decision to Leave," which grabbed Best Director at the 2022 Cannes International Film Festival.

"Broker," "The Age of Shadows," "The Merciless," and "The Gangster, the Cop, the Devil" are among the films IBK invested in that have been critically acclaimed at international film festivals.

"IBK aims to continue contributing to the development of the film industry by investing in films with artistic merit, leading to invitations and awards at international film festivals," the bank official said.

For this year, IBK plans to make 40 billion won of investment in the cultural content sector.