"The Pirates: The Last Royal Treasure" has topped the South Korean box office over the Lunar New Year holiday but its total admissions were lower than expected amid omicron owes, data showed Thursday.

The fantasy action blockbuster attracted a combined 649,000 moviegoers to bring its cumulative total to 881,000 during the five-day holiday that started Saturday, according to the data by the Korean Film Council.

The political drama "Kingmaker" drew 358,000 people over the cited period with a total of 484,000 admissions.

Marvel's superhero movie "Spider-Man: No Way Home" garnered 143,000 people and the musical animated film "Sing 2" had 86,000 tickets sold over the five-day period.

But the performance of the two Korean films, "The Pirates" and "Kingmaker," which were simultaneously released on Jan. 26, was lower than expected as the rapid spread of omicron variant hurt the holiday vibe.

The movies had been expected to spur more people return to theaters as it was the first time in two years that homegrown flicks went head-to-head ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday without a new Hollywood blockbuster.

A total of 1.36 million people went to theaters over the five-day holiday, up from 707,000 people during the four-day Lunar New Year holiday weekend in February 2021.

But it is far behind 4.9 million attendees tallied over 2020's holiday at the brink of the coronavirus outbreak. (Yonhap)