Fueled by the box-office success of the film "Odyssey," demand for the original book also surged.
Korea's reading platform kt Millie Seojae (hereafter Millie's library) analyzed a week of user data from the film "Odyssey" release date and found that searches for the original after the release rose 3.3 times compared with the pre-release daily average. Millie's library users' "Odyssey" original book saves-to-shelf increased 4.7 times.
Analysts said interest in the movie is leading to reading behavior that explores the original and related content.
Even compared with other recently adapted works, the jump in searches for "Odyssey" stood out. Around the film's release, searches within Millie's library for "Project Hail Mary" rose 2.1 times, "It Can't Be Helped" 2.4 times, and The Old Woman with the Knife 1.6 times, while "Odyssey" showed a higher increase of 3.3 times.
Interest in the movie also led to reading that explores the film's main settings and world-building. Searches for "Greek and Roman mythology" increased 3.6 times compared with the pre-release daily average.
This enthusiasm also appeared in the saves-to-shelf metric, which reflects actual reading behavior. The daily average saves-to-shelf for nine books related to Greek and Roman mythology, including "Odysseia" and "Greek and Roman Mythology in Comics 15," rose 3.9 times compared with before the release. Among them, "Odysseia" saw its saves-to-shelf jump 4.7 times, surpassing a cumulative 32,000.
The docent book that summarizes key content to aid understanding, "Just 15 Minutes Today, Odyssey," also saw saves-to-shelf increase 3.3 times from before the release, topping a cumulative 15,000.
Lee Seong-ho, Deputy Minister of Millie's library Reading Party, said, "We are repeatedly seeing readers seek out originals and related books around the releases of this year's buzzy films." "In particular, for Odyssey, what stands out is that interest is expanding beyond the original to the Greek and Roman mythology that forms the work's background."