The number of South Korean moviegoers nose-dived more than 80 percent on-year in November as the third wave of the novel coronavirus pandemic hit the country, data showed Thursday.

A total of 3.59 million people went to theaters last month, down 80.7 percent from 18.6 million tallied a year ago, according to the monthly data by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC).

From a month earlier, the November tally fell 22.4 percent from 4.63 million.

The revenue plunged 79.3 percent on-year to 32.1 billion won ($29.4 million) in November, with the on-month drop reaching 22.6 percent.

The sharp decrease came as South Korea tightened social distancing to curb a resurgence in the daily COVID-19 cases in mid-November.

The caper movie "Collectors" was the biggest hit in November, attracting 1.38 million attendees, followed by the comedy "Samjin Company English Class" and the drama "The Day I Died: Unclosed Case."

For the January-November period, the cumulative number of the film audience tumbled 71.6 percent on-year to 58.08 million, with the revenue totaling 498 billion won. (Yonhap)