Film Industry's COVID-19 Slump Deepens... Over 20,000 Cases for Two Consecutive Days

On the 22nd, when the government strongly urged 'social distancing' to overcome COVID-19, a movie theater in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul was quiet. Photo by Mun Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jong-gil] The film industry's spring famine, brought on by the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), is deepening. According to the Korea Film Council's integrated box office data system on the 25th, the number of moviegoers who visited theaters the previous day was 25,903. Following 25,873 on the 23rd, the figure hovered in the 20,000 range for two consecutive days. Since the data collection began in 2004, days with attendance in the 20,000 range have been rare, with only eight including this day.

Facing unprecedented hardship, the film industry is on the brink of collapse. The Korean Film Producers Association, Marketing Association, Directors Association, and Women Filmmakers Group jointly issued a statement on this day, saying, "The Korean film industry is facing an existential crisis, being dragged into an abyss of unknown depth," and urged government support. They emphasized, "With movie theaters accounting for about 80% of the total revenue of the Korean film industry, a decline in theater sales means the collapse of the entire film industry."

Theaters barely managed to sustain operations until the 17th of last month, when confirmed cases were only around thirty. On the 15th (630,258) and 16th (582,285) of last month, when the situation seemed to be calming, daily attendance even exceeded 500,000. However, from the 19th of last month, as the number of confirmed cases increased exponentially, attendance sharply dropped. On the 24th, it plummeted to the 70,000 range (77,118), and on the 9th, it fell to the 50,000 range (51,615). Between the 16th and 19th, attendance hovered in the 30,000 range for four days before finally plunging to the 20,000 range.

The box office rankings have become meaningless. The top-ranked film, The Invisible Man, attracted only 5,210 viewers. The 2nd and 3rd place films, 1917 and Dark Waters, drew just 4,775 and 2,460 viewers respectively. Among the top 10, the only film with a seat occupancy rate exceeding 3% was The Truman Show (3.8%). This film was originally released in 1998 and has been re-released this time. This reflects the barren period with no signs of recovery such as new releases.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.