A still from "Project Hail Mary" [Sony Pictures Korea]
A still from "Project Hail Mary" [Sony Pictures Korea]

Attendance at specialty-format screens — where a single film can be experienced at overwhelming scale — has surged this year, with IMAX and ScreenX emerging as the standout growth drivers in South Korea's theater market during the first half of 2026.

About 2.81 million people watched films in specialty formats between January and June, according to the Korean Film Council's integrated box office system — a jump of roughly 903,000 viewers, or 47.3 percent, compared with about 1.91 million during the same period last year.

Specialty-format audiences also edged up as a share of total theater attendance, rising from 4.5 percent in the first half of last year to 4.9 percent this year.

IMAX, the most prominent premium platform, led the charge. The format drew about 1.015 million viewers in the first half alone, up 45.9 percent — roughly 319,000 people — from the same period a year earlier.

ScreenX, which projects onto the front screen and both side walls, attracted about 410,000 viewers, growing 32.3 percent, or about 100,000 people, from last year. The 4D format — which adds seat motion, water, wind and other sensory effects — also gained ground, drawing about 786,000 viewers for a 10.2 percent increase of roughly 72,000.

Industry observers credit the surge to a wave of global blockbusters tailor-made for specialty formats.

"Project Hail Mary," starring Ryan Gosling, topped the IMAX chart for the first half with 410,000 viewers. More than 70 percent of the film's runtime was shot with IMAX cameras, and its sweeping depiction of deep space on a massive canvas proved a powerful draw.

Director James Cameron's "Avatar: Fire and Ash," which vividly rendered the distinctive visuals and battle sequences of the planet Pandora, came in second with 220,000 IMAX viewers, while director Yeon Sang-ho's Korean zombie action film "Gunche" placed third with 80,000. All three titles also dominated the ScreenX rankings, demonstrating the powerful synergy between screen technology and content.

Theater industry officials say the overwhelming immersion delivered by large screens and high-quality audio has become a uniquely cinematic draw that streaming services cannot replicate. Audiences' desire to experience a film's world firsthand has aligned with filmmakers' technical ambitions, they say, producing a compounding effect.

The momentum is expected to accelerate in the second half. Director Christopher Nolan's upcoming "Odyssey," set to open Aug. 5, used 609 kilometers of film stock over 91 shooting days — making it the first feature in history shot entirely on IMAX film cameras.

"Spider-Man: Brand New Day," opening July 29, was designed from the planning stage with ScreenX in mind through a "shot for ScreenX" system, with 90 minutes of its runtime projected across three screens. Key sequences, including a freefall scene, will be presented on a four-sided screen extending to the ceiling — a first for the format.

Director Na Hong-jin's science-fiction blockbuster "Hope" is also set to deliver a heightened audiovisual experience through the Dolby Cinema format, combining Dolby Vision's sharp contrast ratio with the three-dimensional spatial audio of Dolby Atmos.


shee@heraldcorp.com