Theater Industry's Endless Downturn... 110,000 Weekend Viewers

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 downward trend in the theater industry shows no signs of ending. Due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, it has become difficult to attract even 100,000 weekend viewers.

According to the Korea Film Council's integrated ticketing system on the 30th, the number of viewers who visited theaters last weekend (28-29) was 116,730. This is a decrease of 18,225 compared to the third weekend of this month (21-22), which had 134,955 viewers. This is the lowest number since the Korea Film Council began official statistics in 2004. As fears of COVID-19 spread, attendance sharply dropped. With new releases being postponed one by one, the slump is expected to continue for the time being.

Under these difficult conditions, "Judy" attracted the most viewers with 18,854. "Invisible Man" (16,048), "1917" (15,793), and "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" (9,837) followed in order. Among re-released films, "La La Land" (6,552) and "Weathering with You" (3,955) performed relatively well.

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