The success of “The King’s Warden” has come as a breath of fresh air for Korean cinema, which has been struggling to draw audiences to theaters. Korean films last crossed the 10-million admission mark at theaters nationwide in 2024, when Jang Jae-hyun’s supernatural thriller “Exhuma” and “The Roundup: Punishment,” the fourth installment of the popular action-crime film franchise starring Ma Dong-seok, both achieved the feat. The milestone went unmatched last year, with the biggest domestic hit being “My Daughter is a Zombie,” which attracted 5.64 million viewers. Two highly anticipated films from celebrated Korean auteurs fell short of expectations: Bong Joon-ho’s “Mickey 17” and Park Chan-wook’s “No Other Choice” attracted 3.1 million and 2.94 million viewers, respectively. The numbers paint a stark picture for the domestic film industry. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, annual admissions consistently topped 200 million, peaking at a record 226 million in 2019, according to data from the Korean Film Council (KOFIC). That figure sharply dropped to 51 million in 2020 and only partially recove
