Killer heat wave, a boon for local movie houses
People walk toward a cinema screening the box office hit “Along with the Gods: The Last 49 Days” in Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap
By Park Jin-hai
With a record breaking heat wave continuing to blanket the country, the local film industry is enjoying a “weather factor” that is boosting ticket sales.
Industry insiders say that although the late July to early August period has traditionally been the high-season for cinema attendance, during this summer it has been exceptionally high and the sweltering heat has played a considerable role in increasing the number of movie-goers.
“My children are on summer vacation and it is too hot for them outdoors in this weather. So nowadays I visit cool places like cafes, malls and theaters,” said Park Seong-hye, a mother who went to a theater to watch “Along with the Gods: The Last 49 Days,” Wednesday. “I was surprised to see so many people at the theater.”
“Along with the Gods: The Last 49 Days,” which was released that day when the temperature in Seoul recorded an all-time high of 39.6 degrees Celsius, attracted 1.25 million people, a new record for opening day attendance, surpassing the previous record set by “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” with 1.18 million, according to Korean Film Council data. It grossed 9.6 billion won in sales on the day, or 70 percent of total receipts.
“Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds,” the first part of the “Along with the Gods” series, released in December 2017, was a smash hit at the local box office, becoming the second most-viewed film of all time in Korea with over 14 million viewers.
“After the success of the first part, Along with the Gods must have enjoyed a halo effect. That said, the scorching heat must have played favorably for the film's attendance,” said an official of Lotte Entertainment. All films currently being screened including “Mission: Impossible ― Fallout” and “Hello Carbot the Movie: The Cretaceous Period” have been enjoying high attendance.
“Hello Carbot the Movie: The Cretaceous Period,” a children's animation piece released Wednesday, also saw a surprise all-time record high attendance of 162,000 on its opening day, taking third place in the local box office. In comparison, “The Haunted House: The Secret of the Cave,” a children's animated film that was released July 25, attracted only 35,000 people on its opening day.
Attendance Wednesday, although it was a weekday, marked 1.88 million, nearly half of last weekends' 3.58 million, and a quarter of the week's 5.92 million.
Three major film distributors earlier this year estimated that the number of movie-goers for the year will be lower than 20 million. The total attendance until July this year was 9.6 million, 0.9 million lower than the same period in 2017. However, summer blockbusters coupled with the scorching heat has given local box offices a boost.