[The Chosun Ilbo, January 29 2008] 90% of Korean Movies Lost Money Last Year

Only one in 10 movies produced in Korea last year made a profit. That's according to the Korean Film Council, which said that out of 112 Korean films released last year just 13 passed the break-even point.

While the total number of filmgoers rose slightly from the year before, the market share of domestic movies fell 7 percentage points from 2006 to 51 percent.

Not only that, only three of the top 10 box-office grossers were produced here, namely "D-War", "May 18th" and "200 Pound Beauty."

The film council attributes the falling popularity of Korean movies to their lower production quality, a frail industry structure and a smaller screen quota.