Indie theaters attract niche consumers

Female moviegoers wait for a movie to start at Cine Cube, an independent theater in Gwanghwamun, central Seoul. / Korea Times file

By Yun Suh-young

There was a time when independent theaters were almost driven to extinction by the slew of multiplexes owned by the country's entertainment conglomerates.

However, these small theaters are now appearing to be regaining their relevance, finding a niche among the more serious moviegoers who are increasingly frustrated about the limited selection of mass market films shown at CGV and Lotte Cinema theaters.

CGV and Lotte Cinema are multiplex chains owned by CJ and Lotte, respectively, which dominate the film industry on both the production and distribution side of the business; the theater market in particular has been a virtual duopoly.

The lineups of movies shown at CGV and Lotte Cinema theaters in past weeks were short and overlapped considerably. "Frozen,'' the Disney animation that quickly became one of the country's highest grossing foreign films ever, was screened at every multiplex. So were international hits such as "RoboCop'' and "American Hustle'' and the generic Korean comedy "Miss Granny.''

That's about all. While the multiplexes did show movies other than these heavyweight titles, most of them were shown only on a limited number of screens for a short time. And don't expect your neighboring CGV and Lotte Cinema to be enthusiastic about exposing art-house work.

Moviegoers such as Lee Ji-young have made it a habit to look at the program of independent theaters where the range of works shown is more diverse.
"I visit the independent cinemas when there's a movie that I want to see that's either not playing at the big multiplex cinemas or their screening schedule doesn't suit my schedule," said Lee.

"Usually the big cinemas tend to allocate popular films during the day time and early evening. The ones I wanted to see like Inside Llewyn Davis which is a musical film, would be shown through special screening sessions or late at night. I had to go elsewhere to see the film during the day. I found that Llewyn Davis was playing at four independent theaters in Seoul at earlier times.''

Independent theaters are also less reluctant to screen controversial films. "Another Family'' and "The Empire of Shame,'' both inspired by the deaths of workers employed at Samsung Electronics' semiconductor factories, were avoided by CGV and Lotte Cinema. However, the movies are attracting better-than-expected audience numbers as they continue to be played in independent theaters.

Other notable movies shown at independent theaters are "Manshin: Ten Thousand Spirits,'' Park Chan-kyung's documentary on shaman Kim Geum-hwa; "Anxiety,'' Min Hwan-ki's documentary about a struggling start-up company; and "Blue Is The Warmest Color,'' Abdellatif Kechiche's intimate love story about two young French women, which won the Palme d'Or for best film at last year's Cannes Film Festival.

Indie Space, an independent theater that opened in 2012, said the number of moviegoers last month increased by 60 percent compared to January.

"Although the reasons for the increase of visitors differ case by case, the recent increase in the number of viewers was attributed to the screening of Another Family. There weren't many theaters showing the film so more people visited smaller theaters," Park Hyun-ji, a public relations manager at Indie Space said.

Perhaps, Seoul's most successful independent theater is Cine Cube, which opened in Gwanghwamun in 2000 with two screens and a total of 365 seats.

There was a time when the theater struggled with falling number of visitors and a lack of publicity. That's no longer the case. Cine Cube's seat occupation rate is 35 percent for the average screening compared to 28 percent for CGV. Of course, the numbers are irrelevant since there is an immense difference in the sample size, but Cine Cube officials are nonetheless happy to point out that business has never been better.

"The reason people come to our theater is because most of the films we show are ones that are hard to find at multiplex cinemas. Our environment is also pleasant because it's less crowded than the big cinemas," said Ko Ah-ra, an official at Cine Cube's Film Business Division.
"We also provide an environment where people can solely focus on the movies. We don't show commercials."

The number of ticket buyers at Cine Cube increased by 40 percent in 2011 to 220,000 while in 2012, the numbers jumped 18 percent to 260,000. Last year, 250,000 people saw movies at the cinema.

"We select movies that have certified cinematic qualities or are directed by renowned directors. Instead of choosing esoteric art films, we choose art films that all age groups can sympathize with. We don't show commercial films at all. Our films can be categorized somewhere in between commercial and hardcore art," said Ko.

"Our main consumers are in the 30s age group followed by the 20s. Because we don't have enough money for promotion, we actively use social networking services (SNS) to publicize our screenings. The 30s and 20s age groups are active in consumption and in looking up information through SNS. But we also have more viewers in the 40 to 50s age groups than multiplex cinemas."

The older viewers were a reason contributing to the success of certain films such as "Amour" in 2012 which garnered over 80,000 viewers in total and "A Late Quartet" last year which attracted over 90,000. What the two films had in common were that they dealt with the life stories of the elderly.

This year, "Like Father, Like Son," a Japanese family film, is faring well with over 120,000 viewers. It's considered a success for independent films when attendance surpasses the 10,000 mark.

"Another reason why smaller theaters are faring well is the change of viewer patterns. These days, people who come in groups tend to seek independent theaters," said Park from Indie Space.