The government announced that it will abolish the surcharge on movie ticket prices starting next year, prompting film organizations to protest, calling it a "unilateral announcement."
Twenty film organizations, including the Korea Association of Art Cinemas, Korea Film Producers Association, Korea Cinematographers Guild, Korea Film Makers Association, Korea Film Actors Guild, and Korea Film Directors Guild, launched the Film Industry Crisis Overcoming Film Artists Coalition (hereafter Film Artists Coalition) and issued a statement on the 4th.
This reaction came in response to the recent announcement by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to abolish the surcharge on movie ticket prices starting next year. Until now, a surcharge equivalent to 3% of the ticket price had been imposed. The government defined it as a "shadow tax" that most consumers were unaware of during the 23rd Emergency Economic and Livelihood Meeting and decided to abolish it. Accordingly, they plan to amend the "Act on the Promotion of Movies and Video" to abolish the surcharge from January 1 of next year.
The Film Artists Coalition rebutted, stating, "The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's claim that audiences are unfairly paying the surcharge is not true." They added, "We have requested the government to diversify the sources of the Movie Development Fund and establish a long-term stable operation plan, but the government has only taken short-term measures," and said, "It is difficult to accept the abolition without presenting a long-term operational roadmap."
The organizations demanded ▲ withdrawal of the plan to abolish the ticket surcharge ▲ presentation of a concrete roadmap for normalizing the Movie Development Fund ▲ formation of a consultative body to discuss the normalization of Korean cinema and the proper operation of the Korean Film Council.
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