hankyoreh

South Korea is the world's ninth-largest movie market in terms of sales of theater tickets and home videos, a study by a public movie institute suggested Thursday.

According to data from the Korean Film Council, the country also ranks third after the United States and India in terms of the theater occupancy rate enjoyed by homegrown movies.

Korea's movie market surpassed US$1.3 billion won in 2004, up from $994 million in 1999, the council said. The U.S. market was the largest by far with $34.3 billion, followed by Japan with $9.6 billion and Britain with $7.1 billion, it noted.

In terms of the occupancy rate of domestic movies at their respective nationwide theaters, Korea came third with 59 percent, followed by France with 39 percent and Japan with 37 percent.

Traditional movie powerhouses -- the U.S. and India -- boasted rates of 94 percent and 93 percent, respectively. Korea ranked fifth in terms of local theaters' sales income from homegrown movies.

Korea made 82 movies in 2004, compared to India with 946, the U.S. with 611 and Japan with 310.

The survey collected data from state-run movie institutes from other countries and movie magazines, and summed up theater ticket sales and video and DVD sales in each country to estimate its movie market.

The world's movie market grew to $83.4 billion from $49.4 billion in 1999, it said.
Seoul, July 27 (Yonhap News)