Lotte Members Sees Sharp Rise in Movie Theater Customers... "94% Recovery Compared to Pre-COVID"

178% Increase in Customers in the First Half of the Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] With the lifting of social distancing measures this year, the number of people visiting movie theaters has significantly increased.

According to an analysis of movie theater usage by Lotte Members in collaboration with Shinhan Card on the 19th, the number of movie theater customers in the first half of the year increased by 178% compared to last year. In June, the number of movie theater customers recovered to 94% of the level in January 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The increase in male viewers was faster than that of females. In the first half of this year, the number of male viewers increased by 164.8% compared to the first half of last year, reaching the same level (100.0%) as the first half of 2019. The usage ratio also reversed, with females (64.9%) outnumbering males (35.1%) in the first half of 2019, but in the first half of this year, males accounted for 50.1% and females 49.9%.

By age group, the number of children and adolescent viewers noticeably increased in the first half of this year. The number of movie theater customers increased across all age groups compared to the first half of last year: under teens (183.5%), 20s (156.2%), 30s (179.8%), 40s (183%), 50s (147.3%), and 60 and above (116.8%). Those under their teens watched movies in theaters about 1.6 times more in the first half of this year than in the first half of 2019, before COVID-19.

Premium theaters (all special screening rooms excluding general theaters such as VIP, Family, and Private theaters) are also popular. Compared to the first half of 2019, usage of general theaters decreased by 14.2% in the first half of this year, while premium theater usage increased by 8.5%. The preferred genres were action, crime, animation, drama, and adventure, in that order.

Although there were many predictions that the rapidly growing online video streaming service (OTT) market would replace movie theaters, in reality, movie theater visit rates were higher among OTT users (38%) than non-users (19%).

A Lotte Members official said, “Consumption for unique personal experiences is gradually increasing, and there is a trend of more premium theater users in movie theaters. At concession stands inside theaters, sets that include goods combos and character combos, which stimulate the collectors’ desire of enthusiasts, are becoming more popular than simple food and beverage sets.”

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