Korean Box Office Dominated by "Avatar: Fire and Ash"
- Dec 23, 2025
James Cameron's long-awaited film, "Avatar: Fire and Ash," had a strong debut at the Korean box office, grossing $10.2 million from 1.3 million admissions over December 19-21. As reported by the Korean Film Council's tracking service KOBIS, the movie accounted for nearly two-thirds of total weekend revenue, airing on 2,514 screens, and quickly amassing a $13.6 million total in just five days.
Disney's "Zootopia 2" fell to second place, but remained a strong competitor, garnering $4 million and bringing its total earnings in Korea to $41.2 million over four weekends. Despite the high-profile release of "Avatar," the animated sequel continued to attract family audiences.
Local animation "Pororo the Movie: Sweet Castle Adventure" was third, earning $250,668 for a total of $805,395. The fourth highest-grossing film was the South Korean comedy-drama "The People Upstairs," which collected $262,926 for a total earning of $3.2 million. The movie is a comically tense tale of a downstairs couple driven to distraction by their noisy upstairs neighbours.
In fifth place was the Japanese anime feature “Jujutsu Kaisen: Shibuya Incident / Culling Game – The Movie,” which earned $129,992, bringing its total to $2.3 million. "Five Nights at Freddy’s 2" claimed sixth place, adding $126,015 to its $1.4 million total.
Preview screenings of “Crayon Shinchan the Movie: Super Hot! The Spicy Kasukabe Dancers” entered the charts in seventh place with $75,097 ahead of its December 24 release. The musical sequel "Wicked: For Good" came eighth, having earned $49,252 for a total of $6.5 million.
Adding $45,916 to its gross was Miyake Sho's "Two Seasons, Two Strangers," known for winning the Locarno Golden Leopard. Rounding out the top ten was the Oscar-shortlisted Japanese period drama "Kokuho," which grossed $31,713 for a total cumulative haul of $1.1 million.
Overall, the top ten films collectively made $15.2 million over the Dec. 19–21 weekend, a significant increase from the previous weekend's $9.5 million.
