"'Seoul's Spring' Effect... Last Month Movie Card Payments Up 127%"

Analysis of BC Card Payment Amounts
Leisure Sector Decreases by 24.7% Due to Sharp Temperature Drop

'ABC (Analysis by BCiF) Report No. 12' published by BC Card.

Thanks to the movie 'Seoul-ui Bom' (Spring in Seoul), which recently surpassed 13 million cumulative viewers, last year's movie sales saw a sharp increase.

According to the 12th issue of the 'ABC (Analysis by BCiF) Report' published by BC Card on the 22nd, card spending in major industries increased by 3.2% in December compared to the previous month. Among the industries, the pet and culture sector recorded the highest growth rate at 19.4%. Card spending also increased compared to the previous month in most sectors, including food and beverage (13.6%), medical (4.6%), shopping (1.3%), education (0.6%), and transportation (0.2%). Due to the winter off-season, the leisure sector (-24.7%) was the only one to see a decrease in card spending.

In the pet and culture sector, movie sales led the increase in card spending with a 127.5% rise compared to the previous month. The movie industry had been experiencing a continuous decline in sales due to COVID-19 and the growth of OTT (online video streaming services). However, the release of 'Seoul-ui Bom' in November last year attracted 8.9 million viewers in December alone and recently surpassed 13 million viewers, playing a significant role in the sharp increase in movie theater sales.

For food and beverage (restaurants, drinks, pubs), the month-on-month growth rate was the highest of the year. After a steady decline in sales due to persistent high prices, there was a significant increase. Card spending in the pub sector, included in the food and beverage category, rose by 18.4% compared to the previous month, showing the highest growth rate of the year. This is believed to be influenced by Christmas and year-end gatherings.

The leisure sector saw a sharp decline in card spending due to decreased demand in the sports industry caused by rapidly falling temperatures.

Woo Sang-hyun, head of the New Finance Research Institute at BC Card (Vice President), stated, "We regularly conduct analyses based on real-time payment data related to various social issues," adding, "We will expand our role to enable issue raising, analysis, and proposing alternatives in the data market through diverse content production in the future."

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