According to the Korea Herald, the commercial viability of "Harbin" and "Bogota: City of the Lost" - two Korean films released at the end of the year are being challenged by streaming platforms and the aftershocks of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is also the reason why, despite the presence of star casts and massive promotion, the two works are still struggling to recover large-scale investments in an increasingly risk-averse market.
According to data from the Korean Film Council (KOFIC), "Harbin" (played by Hyun Bin/Hwang Jung Min/Lee Dong Wook) has attracted 3.87 million viewers since its release on December 24, 2024.
Although the film has topped the box office for nearly three consecutive weeks with positive reviews and a score of 7.38/10 on Naver, "Harbin" is facing the risk of having difficulty recovering its investment as daily ticket sales have shown signs of slowing down.
The film cost 30 billion won ($20.4 million) to produce, so it needs at least 6.5 million viewers to break even.
However, the publisher still expects the project to soon reach its break-even point as the Lunar New Year holiday (from January 25-30) approaches, as well as having agreed on international distribution in 117 countries and territories.
Not only "Harbin", "Bogota: City of the Lost" (played by Song Joong Ki) is also in a gloomy revenue situation, attracting only 362,308 viewers since its release on December 31, 2024, according to KOFIC data.
The 12.5 billion won ($8.5 million) film is currently ranked 5th in the daily chart in South Korea with 6,104 viewers, far behind many other films.
Korea Herald commented that "Bogota: City of the Lost" is one of Song Joong Ki's disappointing movies in terms of box office revenue.
In 2017, his leading role in the movie "Inferno Island" also failed to recoup its budget of 27 billion won ($18.4 million), while the 2023 movie "Dead End" also failed to generate revenue with 260,000 viewers.
These consecutive failures of the male actor have sparked heated debates on Korean social networks about the choice of script as well as the success or failure of the work.
In contrast to his appeal on television, Song Joong Ki's appearance on the big screen has received a series of concerns.
According to Korean newspapers, the fact that works featuring famous actors still fail in terms of revenue has caused film producers in Korea to gradually abandon projects with large costs, returning to safer projects with smaller scales.
For example, in 2025, five major Korean film producers produced only 10 films with production budgets exceeding 3 billion won - the basic budget for standard commercial films in the country.
