Which Movie Genre Is Most Popular in Korean Cinema?

Korean multiplexes show the same thing week after week. Crime thrillers pack houses. Action films grab the best time slots. Sure, there's space for historical dramas and romantic comedies, but when studios look at actual ticket sales, genres mixing tension with violence win consistently.

The Gambling and Crime Connection

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Gambling movies carved out their own space within Korean crime cinema. "Tazza: The High Rollers" launched in 2006 and became something bigger than just another film. The franchise spawned sequels and imitators. That first movie pulled 6.84 million admissions-one of the year's biggest Korean releases.

The film didn't sugarcoat hwatu card gambling. Desperation, addiction, the impossibly thin line between skill and pure luck- "Tazza: The High Rollers" showed all of it. Korean audiences dealing with economic pressure and blocked social mobility saw themselves in these stories. High-stakes games became a way to explore class anxiety, where everything rides on one hand.

This trend is observed in the gambling entertainment sector across the globe, whether it be the Korean movies with their hwatu games or the best online casino Australia sites that balance cultural tastes with international favor. Both free the fundamental strain of gambling to their respective audiences and retain what makes the stories so interesting: the psychology of risk, the story of wanting to win against the odds, the human drama that ensues when all is at stake.

Korean gambling movies do well in the international market because they realize this dynamic, and package explicitly local cultural anxieties with themes that transcend anywhere people know what it means to take a chance.

Action Films Generate Box Office Returns

But here's where the numbers get weird. Crime is number one on the preference polls, but in 2022, crime received 53.2% of all box office receipts. People get tickets to something when they say they want to get one. Studios are keen on what viewers do and not what they say.

The Roundup franchise hit this contradiction. Cram a crime tale into an action film. Provide viewers with characters acting submerged in combat action. The second movie took the lead in the 2022 box office and disproved the traditional rule that a sequel never surpasses the original.

Asian markets eat up action films compared to Europe. South Korea joins China and Japan in producing homegrown action hits that actually perform. Korean directors studied Hong Kong's playbook but developed something different-grittier, shot in real locations instead of soundstages, more concerned with impact than beauty.

Box Office Performance Shapes Studio Decisions

Korean films grabbed 58% of the 2024 market, even with total admissions down 45.6% from before COVID. The industry adapted. Smaller crime thrillers like Escape and Handsome Guys turned profits while expensive productions failed. Audiences showed up selectively, rewarding specific films rather than blindly supporting Korean releases.

The pattern reinforces itself. Crime and action films keep winning, so studios greenlight more crime and action films. Occasionally, this produces something innovative, but mostly it means safer bets. Eleven Korean films broke even in 2024, double the six from 2023. Eight of those eleven cost under 10 billion won. Lower budgets reduce risk, which matters when admissions remain unpredictable.

Directors seeking funding for quieter projects often frame them within crime or action conventions. Genre packaging became a financing strategy. A meditation on class could sell as a thriller. A character study gets action sequences added. Studios want recognizable frameworks that have been tested well before.

Streaming Platforms Reshape the Landscape

Netflix and other streaming services finance Korean productions now, operating with different metrics than theatrical distributors and reshaping how Korean entertainment reaches global audiences. Movies that would bomb in multiplexes find audiences online. Viewing data replaces box office receipts. Whether this shifts production patterns long-term remains unclear, but streaming opened funding sources beyond traditional studios.

Crime films let Korean filmmakers probe corruption and inequality without overt political statements. Action movies offer catharsis in a high-pressure, competitive society. These genres function as cultural release valves, not mere entertainment.

The theatrical recovery stalled. Admissions remain below pre-pandemic levels. Streaming continues pulling viewers from theaters. Korean films maintain a strong domestic market share by offering what Hollywood imports miss-stories reflecting current cultural tensions wrapped in polished genre filmmaking. Crime and action deliver this combination most effectively, explaining their box office dominance.

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Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko