Finally in 3 years, the first '10-million viewer film' was born in the Korean theater district. On June 11th (Saturday), The Roundup (released on May 18th) surpassed 10-million viewers in total in 25 days of its release, announcing the happy '10-million viewer' news. Including Korean and foreign films released in Korea, the film became the 28th '10-million viewer film' in history and the 20th among Korean films. It is also the first '10-million viewer film' in 3 years since Director  Bong Joonho's PARASITE, which won the Palme d'Or at the Festival de Cannes in May 2019. It is also meaningful in that The Roundup set the record of attracting '10-million viewers' for the first time since the COVID-19 Pandemic that swept the world in February 2020.

The Korean film industry, which produced '10-million viewer films' every year since 2012, reached its best year in 2019. As if celebrating the 100th anniversary of Korean film history, the good news continued from the beginning of the year. Extreme Job, which was released in January 2019, was a huge hit, winning 2nd place in the Korean movie box office rankings. In May, Director  Bong Joonho's PARASITE won the Palme d'Or at Cannes for the first time in the history of Korean cinema, further enhancing the status of Korean films and even making it a great hit with '10-million viewers.' In 2019, 5 10-million viewer films appeared in total, including the foreign films Avengers: Endgame, Frozen 2, and Aladdin, recording 226,678,777 moviegoers. It is the best box office record after the  Korean Film Council collected the total number of audiences through the integrated computer network in 2004. However, the following year, along with the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020, the Korean film industry faced its worst crisis. Tentpole films, whose production costs were more than 20 billion won, had to give up being screened in empty theaters. They had no choice but to release the films on the OTT platform or postpone their releases without any promise.

High Expectations for the Return of Summer Peak Season in 3 Years Since 2020

In May 2022, when the number of Korean moviegoers exceeded 14 million, the largest number in 28 months since January 2020 just before the Pandemic, a 'signal of recovery' was detected. Soon after, the rise of The Roundup with 10-million viewers served as a flare for the audiences to come back to the theater, who had avoided visiting the theater because of the Pandemic. In this mood, it is important to notice that The Roundup's box office hit record goes beyond the Hollywood blockbusters  Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Jurassic World: Dominion by a large gap. It means Korean moviegoers have waited for Korean movies. With The Roundup becoming a '10-million viewer film,' the Korean film industry is increasingly looking forward to the 'summer peak season,' which has come back in 3 years.