• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.10
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• pp.503-517
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• 2017

After a few recent documentary films had commercial success, factors for their success are getting attention. This paper explores the factors of the financial success of two documentary films. "My Love, Don't Cross That River" gained extended popularity with its universal message, and "Two Doors" conveyed a poweful political message. This paper conducted a case study by inteviewing production directors and distribution managers. Analysis was based on the three categories suggested by Litman and Kohl(1989): creative sphere, distribution-scheduling release pattern, and marketing efforts. Findings present the common factors of the two movies' success in the following areas: persons and events showing a powerful reality, a message with new and fresh insight, artistic quality, distribution strategy with timely scheduling, release time (period), public relations, and advertising.. In addition, "My Love, Don't Cross That River" was helped by a sufficient budget for scheduling/releasing and advertising. Its wide-release stratergy worked as well. "Two Doors" was aided by the government support for release and by the special factor called 'Participating viewer'. By examining the factors of documentary films' commercial success, this study has an implication for the popularization of documentary movies by indicating how to strategically apply relevant factors.