Patrick Frater over at Film Business Asia gives a solid overview of the Korean movie market in 2010, using data just published by CJ CGV. The key points:
– Ticket sales were down 5 percent to 148 million. That is the lowest level in five years.
– Korean film attendance was down 2 percentage points to 47 percent of the overall box office.

Sadly, the report did not include any estimate of 2010 revenues. Given the rise of ticket prices in general (thanks to 3D, 4D, and IMAX screens), I would not be surprised if overall revenues were about the same as 2009. But final, official data probably will not be released for another month or two.

Also worth noting is the Korean movies accounted for 7 of the top 10 last year, and 10 of the top 20. There were no non-Hollywood, non-Korean films in the top 20.

If you do not include AVATAR (which was released in 2009, but made most of its money in 2010), the top film of the year was Won Bin’s THE MAN FROM NOWHERE, with 6.25 million admissions — not bad, but that is only the 15th best Korean film.

So, not a great year financially for Korean movies, but not a disaster either. Kind of “meh” — like too many of the movies themselves.