Choi Dong-hoon, Han Jae-rim, Kim Han-min, and Lee Jung-jae, Fierce Competition for the Megaphone

'Alien+In', 'Emergency Declaration', 'Hansan', 'Hunt' Summer Releases
Weekend Ticket Price Hits 15,000 Won Era
"An Atmosphere of Watching One Fun Movie"
Who Will Benefit from This Summer's Flood of Blockbusters?

Directors Choi Dong-hoon, Kim Han-min, Han Jae-rim, Lee Jung-jae / Photo by Yonhap News, Big Stone Pictures, Yonhap News, Megabox Joongang Corp Plus M

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Isul] The era of 15,000 won weekend movie tickets has arrived. As the three multiplex chains have all raised their ticket prices, some voices express that watching movies has become more burdensome than before. This seems to have already been reflected in the box office. The movie "Crime City 2" has invigorated theaters by surpassing 10 million viewers for the first time this year. Typically, when a movie hits 10 million viewers, the audience numbers for other films released at the same time also increase, but recently this has changed. There is growing analysis that audiences are watching only one truly entertaining movie.

Blockbusters that had postponed their releases due to the pandemic are hitting theaters en masse this summer. The sequel returning after 36 years, "Top Gun: Maverick," was released on the 22nd, and "Decision to Leave" (director Park Chan-wook), which won the Best Director award at the 75th Cannes Film Festival, will meet audiences on the 29th.

Directors with 10 million viewers are also coming. Kim Han-min, who attracted the largest audience with "The Admiral: Roaring Currents" (2014), will release "Hansan: Rising Dragon," and Choi Dong-hoon, who became a double 10-million viewer director with "The Thieves" (2012) and "Assassination" (2015), will release "Alien+Human" next month.

"The Face Reader" (2013) and "The King" (2017) director Han Jae-rim's aviation action film "Emergency Declaration," starring Song Kang-ho, Lee Byung-hun, and Jeon Do-yeon, will meet audiences in August, and actor Lee Jung-jae's directorial debut and this year's Cannes sensation "Hunt" will be released on August 10.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The battle of the megaphones is also intriguing. Most of the new releases this summer feature faces representing the film industry as leads. Attention is focused on how directors, who have earned strong trust from audiences, will be evaluated with their new films. Additionally, factors such as the film's completeness and genre are expected to have an impact.

A film industry insider said, "Since the pandemic, audiences have been exposed to a lot of high-quality content, raising their standards, and there are also voices saying that the increased movie ticket prices are burdensome. The criteria for choosing movies will be different from two years ago." He added, "It is uncertain which movies audiences will choose. This is also an interesting point in this summer's market."

He continued, "Films directed by directors who receive high expectations from audiences and that have huge production costs are coming out and competing. We will have to wait until the films are released to see which director can satisfy the now more discerning audience."

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