Omniscient Reader cost ₩31.2B and drew one-sixth of its breakeven audience

Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy (전지적 독자 시점) adapted one of Korea's most popular web novels, with Lotte Entertainment distributing at a production cost of ₩31.2B — the largest budget ever committed to a single Korean film. The producers planned it as the first installment of a series, budgeting for a 10-million-admission event.

Released July 23, 2025, it opened at number one with 281,263 admissions in three days, then fell roughly 40% as fans of the source novel turned against the adaptation and word of mouth collapsed. Within a week it lost the top spot to F1: The Movie; on day thirteen the cumulative count was still under 1M. The film finished around 1M admissions — roughly one-sixth of the 6M breakeven.

The planned sequels became unmakeable. Business press framed the miss as a symptom of a market where streaming has permanently cut theatrical demand: the domestic box office in the first half of 2025 sat at a 21-year low, while the film's break-even math was written for the pre-streaming era.