– Very interesting article up on Film Business Asia about the state of movie box office all over Asia. Good news from Korea, where 3D, IMAX and rising ticket prices are helping the industry make more money:

In Korea, using KOBIS (영화관입장권통합전산망) data, admissions were down 4% at 69.4 million tickets, but box office expressed in local currency was up 15% at ₩547 billion ($447 million).

But the crazy news comes from China, where apparently the film business could DOUBLE again this year. In fact, at the current pace, it looks like the China box office is going to overtake Korea’s for the first time:

The biggest growth story of the lot was China – again – where box office revenue doubled year-on-year. Revenue for Jan. 1 – June 27 was an estimated RMB4.52 billion ($667 million) compared with RMB2.26 billion in the first half of 2009.

– By the way, in CJ CGV’s Korea box office report for the first half of 2010 (no links, sorry) — and they say that it was Korea’s worst first-half in over four years by attendance, with 70.04 million admissions (CJ’s numbers were slightly higher than KOBIS, which had 69.4 million). Overall for 2010, Korean films have accounted for 43 percent of the box office, down from 45 percent last year (although up from 37.6 percent in 2008).

Thanks to the World Cup, June was the worst June in years, with barely 10 million admissions (compared to 11, 11, 14 and 13 million over the past four years). But while attendance was down, Korean movies did relatively well with 50.4 percent of the box office (compared to 30, 30, 25, and 36 over the past four years).

– The Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival starts this Thursday. Looks like a fun lineup this year, especially the Korean ’70s action cinema section. Definitely looking forward to spending some time there this year.

– Oh, and I just saw INCEPTION, the latest Christopher Nolan film. All I can say is “Wow,” what an amazing movie. Total spectacle, but a first-rate story, too. Creative and difficult, but totally accessible.

These days, when people say a film is “nonstop action”, what they usually mean is nonstop shaky camera, noise and silliness. INCEPTION is nonstop, but all the action and effects are going toward telling a great story (in this regard, it is almost like a Pixar movie). In fact, INCEPTION almost makes me angry — angry that so few other filmmakers take the time to tell a story so engrossing and so tight.