Korea's live music ticket sales rise nearly 16% in Q3 with success of 'Chicago,' IU

Korea's live music ticket sales rose nearly 16 percent, or 51.4 billion won ($36.8 million), on year in the third quarter, with the musical "Chicago" in Seoul raking in the most buck, the Korea Arts Management Service announced on Thursday.

A scene from the musical "Chicago," which opened in Guro District, western Seoul, in June. [YONHAP]

Korea's live music ticket sales rose nearly 16 percent, or 51.4 billion won ($36.8 million), on year in the third quarter, with the musical "Chicago" in Seoul raking in the most buck, the Korea Arts Management Service announced on Thursday.

By analyzing data posted on the Korea Performing Arts Box Office Information System, it reported that this year's third quarter saw 5,590 titles, 32,095 performances, about 5.71 million tickets and 379.5 billion won in ticket sales. The total ticket count also saw an on-year increase of 5.7 percent or 310,000 admissions.

The top show, the licensed musical "Chicago," was followed by the homegrown musical "Frankenstein," K-pop artist IU's "HEREH World Tour Concert: The Winning," the licensed musical "Hadestown" in Seoul and K-pop artist Psy's "Summer Swag" concert in Busan.

IU's ″The Winning″ encore concert for ″Hereh″ world tour held at the Seoul World Cup Stadium in Sangam, western Seoul, on Sept. 12 and 22 [EDAM ENTERTAINMENT]

In terms of genre, the number of classical concerts that opened during the quarter was the highest, with 2,029 titles. It was followed by contemporary music — which includes K-pop — with 931 concerts; and plays with 917 shows. In terms of the number of performances staged, plays topped the list with 13,837 performances and musicals closely followed with 10,194 performances.

Though over 2,000 classical concerts were staged this quarter, the ticket count was down 1.4 percent, or about 100,000 tickets, and sales decreased by 35.4 percent, or 9.6 billion won, compared to the same time last year.

Musicals, meanwhile, saw an increase of 2.9 percent, or about 58,000 more tickets sold, and sales grew by 5.7 percent, or about 6.3 billion won, on year.

A scene from the musical ″Hadestown″ staged in Charlotte Theater in Songpa District, southern Seoul, from July to October. [S&CO]

Musicals sold the most tickets, about 35 percent of the total, followed by contemporary music concerts, which took 30.6 percent of the pie. Contemporary music took up the largest portion of sales, 56 percent of the total, while musicals followed with 31 percent.

The Korea Arts Management Service also reported nearly 62 percent of all live music concerts and performances were staged in the greater Seoul area. A total of 77 percent of the ticket count and 80 percent of the ticket sales also occurred within the metropolis and its surrounding Gyeonggi and Incheon areas.

BY LEE JIAN [lee.jian@joongang.co.kr]