The Korean film industry beat its sales record for the sixth year straight year in 2015, driven by domestic hits and a record number of moviegoers, data by the official market tracker showed Wednesday.

Total sales volume grew 1 percent year-on-year to 2.1 trillion won ($1.7 billion), mainly due to a record 200.1 million people watching movies in theaters, according to data from the Korean Film Council. These moviegoers generated 1.7 trillion won of sales, up 3.1 percent from 2014. The figure translates into an average of 4.22 movies watched by each person in Korea.

Domestic movies did better than foreign ones.  Korean movies drew 100.1 million people in 2015, up 4.9 percent from the previous year. Viewership of imported films fell by 2.8 percent to 100 million people. In terms of market share, the two groups were neck-and-neck at 52 percent and 48 percent respectively.

The year 2015 also saw advancements in other distribution channels, such as IPTV and video-on-demand services. They saw 334.9 billion won in sales, up 12.7 percent from 2014.

IPTV sales increased 15.7 percent year-on-year and made up nearly 80 percent of the market share of secondary channels. Online video-on-demand services also jumped 16.7 percent after a bearish 2014.

Meanwhile, exports were sluggish in 2015, plunging 12 percent year-on-year to $55.5 million.

However, exports of movie titles rose 11.3 percent to $29.4 million, excluding overseas sales of post-film production and filming locations,

A total of 650 titles, up 121 from the previous year, were shipped abroad at an average price of $25,882 last year, showed the data.

“Korean movies used to experience a lot of ups and downs, but they have been growing steadily in recent years,” said Tae Eun-jeong, researcher at Korean Film Council. “Exports are expected to rise continuously, as many movies are targeting both domestic and foreign viewers.” (Yonhap)