COVID-19 Theaters Struggle Even More Than 'Tenet'
350,076 Visitors Stay... Seat Sales Rate 7.9%
Due to COVID-19 Resurgence, Prolonged Theater Industry Slump
Even Hollywood blockbusters in the United States could not thrive in the face of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). According to the Korea Film Council's integrated ticket sales network, the number of moviegoers who visited theaters last weekend (28th?30th) was 469,919. This is 7,051 fewer than the fourth weekend of this month (21st?23rd), which had 476,970 visitors. Even on Saturday, the day with the highest attendance, the number did not exceed 200,000.
Considering the release of Christopher Nolan's Tenet, this is a painful result. The film attracted 353,076 viewers last weekend across 2,216 screens (25,880 showings). Although it secured the largest number of 4,449,662 seats, the occupancy rate was only 7.9%. This performance falls far short compared to Nolan's previous works. Dunkirk (2017) drew 1,119,356 viewers in its opening weekend. Interstellar (2014) had 1,663,001, The Dark Knight Rises (2012) had 1,992,130, Inception (2010) had 936,509, and The Dark Knight (2008) recorded 789,251 viewers respectively.
The slowdown of Tenet is largely due to the spread of COVID-19. To prevent further resurgence, the government raised the social distancing level from 2 to 2.5 starting on the 30th. All economic indicators including consumption, production, and employment are expected to plummet as they did during the initial outbreak earlier this year.
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The theater industry has already taken a direct hit. Since the 18th, daily attendance has been below 200,000. Among films securing more than 10,000 seats last weekend, the only movie with a sales rate above 10% was Peninsula (18.7%). Even the box office top-ranking films Deliver Us from Evil (53,318 viewers) and Okay Madam (21,982 viewers) remained at 6.8% and 5.4% occupancy rates respectively. With new releases postponing their premieres, a prolonged slump is expected for some time.
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