Theater Industry Emerging from COVID-19 Nightmare... 70,000 Visitors in 39 Days

Seat Sales Rate Doubles Thanks to New Releases... 'Troll: World Tour' Exceeds 10%
'Avengers' Series Also Performs Well... 'Parasite' Fails to Attract Audience Effectively

Movie 'Troll: World Tour' Still Cut

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jong-gil] The theater industry has seized an opportunity to escape the nightmare of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Thanks to the addition of new releases, the daily audience surpassed 50,000 for the first time this month.

According to the Korea Film Council's integrated ticketing system on the 30th, the number of visitors to theaters the previous day was 71,930. This is the first time in 39 days since the 21st of last month, when 72,707 visitors were recorded, that the number exceeded 70,000. Considering that the daily audience this month had only been in the range of 10,000 to 40,000 until the 28th, this is a significant achievement.

The overall seat occupancy rate was 6.4%, doubling from 3.2% on the 28th. In particular, the newly released film Troll: World Tour recorded a seat occupancy rate of 11.8% even though it was screened only at Megabox theaters. This is the highest among films securing more than 10,000 seats. The film also attracted the largest audience of 9,636 in the box office tally.

Movie still cut from 'My Youth Belongs to You'

The other new release, My Youth Is Yours, drew the second largest audience of 8,248, supported by a seat occupancy rate close to 10% (9.2%). Another new film, Hotel Lake, also performed relatively well with a seat occupancy rate of 6.7% and 6,935 viewers.

The re-released films on the same day also achieved their intended goals. Avengers: Endgame, ranked 5th in all-time box office with 13,934,592 viewers, attracted 6,981 viewers with a seat occupancy rate of 5.4%. Its predecessor, Avengers: Infinity War, drew 4,622 viewers with a seat occupancy rate of 4.6%. Although these numbers are far below pre-COVID-19 levels, they are record-breaking for this month and could place the films at the top of the box office. The average daily box office leader audience this month is 4,502 (as of the 29th).

Parasite, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in the United States, attracted 6,331 viewers but effectively failed to draw a large audience. Despite having the highest seat occupancy rate (15.1% with 170,183 seats), its seat sales rate remained at 3.7%.

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