Now and Forever (Movie - 2006)

Osaka concert features Korean Wave stars

Source | 2007/01/25 | Permalink |

Korea Herald correspondent

OSAKA, Japan - It took about 50 minutes for the first performer to appear on stage at this charity concert titled "Hallyu Festival in Osaka", but Japanese fans of Korean pop culture never got bored while waiting.

More than 20,000 devoted fans of Korean pop and film stars packed the Osaka Dome, home to the Orix Buffaloes baseball team, on Tuesday night to see the fund-raising concert hosted by the International Vaccine Institute to help children suffering from infectious diseases. The institute is a Seoul-based organization dedicated to improving human health through research on preventive medicine.

The concert, which was preceded by a program to promote the institute and its activities, turned out to be a huge success thanks to the amazing popularity of the all-star lineup of Hallyu stars.

Jun Jin, a member of the popular six-man group Shinhwa, broke the ice with songs from his first solo album released in November, including "Love Never Comes Eas...| More

"Once in a Summer" to be Released in Japan

Source | 2007/01/12 | Permalink |

The Korean film "Once in a Summer" will be released in Japan on Jan. 27. The movie, which stars two top stars, Lee Byeong-heon and Soo-Ae --but fared badly at the Korean box office when it was released on Nov. 30--is expected to do well in Japan.

The two stars will also do their utmost for the movie's success in the island country, as they did in Korea, touring local cities to promote the movie despite its poor performance at box office. They will fly to Japan on Jan. 16 and give interviews with various media outlets to promote the film. Lee visited the neighboring country last year for promotional purposes.

The movie is expected to do well in Japan, unlike in Korea, due to Lee's tremendous popularity there. It was sold to Japan for US$4 million before its release in Korea.

Another reason for lofty expectations is the success of "Now and Forever, which performed poorly in Korea but was the only Korean movie to make the top five at the Japanese box office last year, as it starr...| More

Korean film industry has lost some sparkle

Source | 2006/12/29 | Permalink |

The Korean film industry seemed to be in full bloom in 2006 with hits such as "The Host" and "The Royal Jester (formerly "The King and the Clown")" attracting more than 10 million customers at the box office.

A total of 108 domestic films, including this week's "My Wife is a Gangster 3", have opened in theaters nationwide. The number has skyrocketed since 2005's 83 films and is the biggest number of films made since 1990. And in 2007 over 60 percent of the films shown here were Korean made.
Even with these record-breaking numbers, the reality in Chungmuro (the area where Korean film production companies have been concentrated, to such an extent that the word is now synonymous with the phrase "Korean film industry") is very different. Although there have been more movies, they have made less profit than in previous years. In short ― the industry is not making enough money.

Return on Investment is minus 30 percent
Based on theater profits alone, the return on investment thi...| More

'Hallyu' Not Enough for Korean Films

Source | 2006/10/31 | Permalink |

Systematic Approaches Are Necessary to Tap Foreign Market

By Kim Tae-jong
Staff Reporter

It has been an ordinary scene in recent years for a Korean movie star to be surrounded by thousands of international fans at an airport or a fan meeting in Asia.

With their popularity growing overseas, domestic films have gradually made their way to international markets. But despite the rush, the overall performance of domestic movies in overseas markets has been disappointing, with only a few exceptions.

Experts point out that film stars?popularity does not necessarily lead to the overseas box office success of their films.

They also say the local film industry should diversify marketing strategies to take more a systematic approach to target markets.

Reliance on Japanese Market

According to a report from the Korean Film Council (KOFIC), the first half of 2006 has seen a sharp decrease in the international sales of Korean films.

International sales dropped to $17.4 milli...| More

Domestic Film Exports Drop in H1 2006

Source | 2006/08/01 | Permalink |

Overseas exports of Korean films plunged in the first half of 2006 after a Korean pop culture boom overseas.

The Korean Film Council said August 1 that 128 domestic films were exported to 47 countries in the first six months of the year, with the contract amount reaching 17.4 million dollars, down 58.3 percent from the same period a year ago. The average export price per film stood at 136,088 dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 50.2 percent.

By region, exports to Asian dropped 63.5 percent this year, while exports to Europe, which had grown steadily, were down 40 percent. By contrast, exports to Latin America rose 75.9 percent.

The council said the average per-film export price was relatively low given the small scale of the Latin American film market compared with those of Asia and Europe, but that the popularity of Korean films in the Latin American market was an encouraging fact.

By country, the ratio of exports to Japan, the largest importer of Korean movies, dropped fr...| More