970,000 Movie Theater Visitors in April... Severe Impact from COVID-19

Sales of 7.5 Billion Won... 6.6% of 113.1 Billion Won in April Last Year

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 Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jong-gil] Last month, the number of moviegoers visiting theaters did not even reach one million. This is due to the impact of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19). Although sixty-nine films were screened, more than in usual months, it was insufficient to erase the fear of COVID-19.

According to the Korea Film Council's integrated ticketing system on the 1st, the number of theater visitors last month was 972,483. This is 861,967 fewer than the 1,834,450 visitors in March, when the COVID-19 damage accelerated. With ongoing concerns about infection and no major medium-to-large scale new releases, attendance sharply declined. The three major multiplex chains also closed some branches or reduced screening times. Even implementing 'social distancing between seats' made it difficult to increase sales.

The damage to the film industry is considerable. Last month's attendance was only 7.3% of the same period last year (13,338,963 people). Revenue shrank further due to various discount events, totaling 7,514,928,020 won. This is about 6.6% of last April's revenue of 113,184,671,392 won.

The depressed atmosphere is clearly reflected in the daily audience numbers. Until the 28th, there was no day with more than 50,000 visitors. There were only eight days with attendance in the ten-thousands. Popular series like 'Avengers' were re-released but failed to make a significant impact. On the other hand, 'La La Land' performed relatively well, ranking first at the box office for eight days.

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