Theater Industry Struggles Amid COVID-19 Spread... Weekend Boom Disappears

On the 3rd, as concerns over the spread of the novel coronavirus infection grow, a movie theater in Gangnam-gu, Seoul is less crowded than usual. Photo by Mun Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jong-gil] The weekend movie theater scene has turned red due to a sharp increase in confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19).

According to the Korea Film Council's integrated ticketing system as of 9 a.m. on the 21st, the number of reserved viewers is about 180,000. This includes 17,699 for the upcoming release "Time to Hunt" and 1,439 for "Gentleman." No movie has booked more than 40,000 tickets. "1917" has 37,717, "Beasts Clawing at Straws" has 30,153, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" has 27,968, and "Honest Candidate" has 27,909.

This is the aftermath of the COVID-19 spread. The day before, confirmed cases surged nationwide, including in Daegu. The theater industry is on alert. On the 20th, the total number of theater visitors was 222,222, a decrease of 63,855 from 286,077 on the 19th. It is facing the risk of falling below 200,000 again. Already this month, it has failed to surpass 200,000 on four days. The cold atmosphere is even worse than in April last year, when it failed to gather 200,000 viewers for 14 consecutive days. At that time, the theater scene was anticipating the release of "Avengers: Endgame."

The gloomy mood is also reflected in seat occupancy rates. On the previous day, the only movie that secured more than 10,000 seats and exceeded a 10% seat occupancy rate was "Little Women" (10.9%). The box office leader "Beasts Clawing at Straws" recorded 7.8%, second place "Honest Candidate" 9.2%, and third place "1917" only 6.6%. With even weekend reservations low, a rebound is expected to be difficult.