'Minari' ticket sales boost Korean box office

A visitor at a cinema in Seoul passes by a digital poster for ″Minari″ on March 28. [NEWS1]

"Minari" helped boost Korean box office sales in March, proving especially popular among middle-aged audiences, according to a report from the Korean Film Council (Kofic) on Friday.

According to Kofic, 3.26 million tickets were sold across the country last month, 4.7 percent higher than the previous month and 77.5 percent higher than the number of tickets sold in March 2020, when the number of Covid-19 cases started surging in Korea.

The number of tickets sold in March last year was 1.83 million, the lowest ever for the month.

The number of moviegoers has been steadily rising since the beginning of this year, thanks to Disney's jazz-filled animation movie "Soul" in January and Japanese action animation "Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie — Mugen Train" in February.

"Minari" hit local theaters on March 3 and has sold 908,425 tickets as of Friday. It topped the local box office ranking for 21 consecutive days.

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]