South Korean movies have been dominating the country’s cinemas since the start of this year.

The Korean Film Council announced on Monday that 8.48 million people watched Korean films at cinemas in February, accounting for 63 percent of all moviegoers. About 4.98 million watched foreign flicks.

There were 520,000 more people in Korean movie audiences this January compared to the same month last year, and 900,000 more this February than last.

Several movies currently topping the box office charts ― “Detective K: Secret of Virtuous Widow” starring Kim Myeong-min, “Aideul (Children)” starring Park Yong-woo and “Pyongyang Castle” starring Jeong Jin-young ― are leading the trend, according to the Korean Film Council. 

The slump in interest in foreign movies has continued from January. Except for “Gulliver’s Travels,” which opened during the Lunar New Year holiday and was seen by 1.73 million viewers, none of the foreign films released in the first two months of this year have drawn more than a million viewers.

The total number of moviegoers in the first two months of the year was 25.70 million. The figure is 4.07 million lower than that of the same period last year when more than 29.77 million went to the movies, due largely to the hit movies “Avatar,” “Jeonwoochi” and “Blood Brothers.”

By Park Min-young  (claire@heraldcorp.com)