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S. Korea sees record movie-goers for 5th straight year

December 29, 2015
The number of movie-goers has risen every year since 2011. (Yonhap)

The number of movie-goers has risen every year since 2011. (Yonhap)

SEOUL (Yonhap) — The number of movie-goers in South Korea has reached a new high for a fifth consecutive year in 2015, thanks in part to the popularity of domestic movies, data by the official market tracker showed Tuesday.

More than 215.2 million people went to the movies from Jan. 1 to Monday, surpassing the previous year’s record of 215.1 million, data by the Korean Film Council showed.

The number of movie-goers has risen every year since 2011, when 159.7 million people opted for big screens over home cinema.

The steady rise has been attributed to high demand for domestic movies. South Korean movies have attracted more than 100 million viewers consistently for the past four years since regaining dominance over foreign films in 2011.

Though Hollywood took the lead in the first half of 2015, “Veteran” and “The Assassination” picked up the slack in local cinema, drawing more than 10 million viewers each since July.

The releases of highly anticipated Hollywood blockbusters like “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” “007 Spectre” and “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” also helped set the new record.