Even with a prize event... 'Iut Sachon' struggles with 200,000 viewers in the first week, theaters remain quiet

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Isul] Foot traffic to theaters has stopped again. The box office number one film, Neighbor, attracted only 200,000 viewers in its opening week despite various promotional events.

According to the Korea Film Council's integrated ticketing system on the 30th, Neighbor (director Lee Hwang-gyeong) drew 45,607 viewers on the 29th, securing the top spot at the box office. Since its release on the 25th, the cumulative audience reached 200,290.

Neighbor is a film depicting the story of a surveillance team facing demotion who disguise themselves as neighbors of a politically isolated family under home quarantine, monitoring them day and night. Actor Oh Dal-su returned to the public eye with this film after 2 years and 9 months following the 'Me Too' sexual harassment scandal, sparking debate over the appropriateness of his comeback.

The Neighbor team made efforts to attract audiences by holding events such as giveaways of refrigerators and TVs for viewers during the third wave of COVID-19. They succeeded in drawing 200,000 viewers.

Recently, health authorities have been closely monitoring the third wave of COVID-19 with concern. Kang Do-tae, the first chief coordinator of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters (Vice Minister of Health and Welfare), expressed worry, stating, "If small-scale infections continue to lead to large-scale outbreaks, the third wave is very likely to be prolonged."

In this atmosphere, even considering usual promotional activities, the Neighbor film's nationwide giveaway event was criticized as inappropriate and received unfavorable views. The film, which took on various risks by releasing during this time, managed to attract only 200,000 viewers in its first week.

'Neighbor Cousin' still/photo by Little Big Pictures

Additionally, the second place on the day was the film Collectors (director Park Jung-bae), starring Ji Je-hoon, which attracted 18,336 viewers, bringing its cumulative audience to 1,369,543.

Third place went to the thriller Run directed by Aneesh Chaganty, which drew 13,236 viewers, with a total audience of 191,420.

The daily number of theatergoers on the day was 105,120, and from the 23rd to the 29th, a total of 515,372 viewers attended. Over the weekend from the 27th to the 29th, 276,967 people watched movies, and as of the 30th, 3,641,137 people visited theaters in November.

The Central Disease Control Headquarters (CDCH) announced that as of midnight that day, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases increased by 438 from the previous day to 34,201. Although new daily cases had been in the 500s recently, the weekend effect of reduced testing likely caused the number to drop to the 400s.

This year, the theater industry is facing a situation where the red-letter days on the calendar mean little. It seems difficult to expect a year-end boom in December as well.

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