COVID-19 shock: cinema sales to drop 73 percent in 2020

A moviegoer reserves a seat at a cinema in Seoul, in this Nov. 23 file photo. / Yonhap

By Kwak Yeon-soo

The pandemic continues to weigh on Korea's box office sales forcing many cinemas to close and major blockbuster releases to be delayed. Ticket sales will likely fall 73.3 percent to 510 billion won ($467 million) year-on-year, the Korean Film Council (KOFIC) said in its annual forecast.

The country's third wave of coronavirus cases infected about 7,000 people in November and the number of daily infections continue to rise in December. Due to the level 2.5 social distancing measures, cinemas and multiplexes are able to accommodate only about half the normal number of moviegoers and must close from 9 p.m.

The cinema business' immediate future looks bleak as releases of highly anticipated sci-fi action flick “Seobok,” musical pic “Life is Beautiful” and Pixar's animated film “Soul” have been postponed to next year.

KOFIC said the whole cinema ecosystem ― comprised of film production, box office, advertising and overseas sales ― have been dramatically affected by the pandemic.

Ticket sales for this year are set to hit the lowest since records began, in turn fueling the worst Korean box office in nearly two decades.

Movie ticket sales fell to 62 billion won in February, down 56.6 percent from January, as the first wave of the pandemic hit the country. It further plunged to 15.2 billion won in March and 7.5 billion won in April, respectively.

The figure rebounded in May thanks to national holidays, and reached 77.2 billion won in August as summer blockbusters were released, including hard-boiled action film “Deliver Us from Evil” and Christopher Nolan's “Tenet.”

In September, people stopped attending theaters as virus cases spiked again. KOFIC forecasts ticket sales in December will amount to 12.3 billion won.

In its survey of 135 film projects that have suffered losses from the coronavirus outbreak, KOFIC said their total amount of loss (January-December) was estimated to be 32.9 billion won.

Among them, the damage caused by postponing or changing production schedules was the most severe estimating losses at 11.3 billion won. It was followed by the release postponement estimated at 9.7 billion won. Badly affected ticket sales will likely also leave many unemployed.

With almost no major new films to entice moviegoers and lockdown restrictions keeping cinemas shut after 9 p.m., cinemas have turned to low-budget arthouse films and re-screenings of past popular titles.

In November, 320 independent and arthouse films were screened 514,814 times, compared with 353 films screened 415,699 times in the same month a year earlier.

The number of Korean films at the box office also increased amid pandemic. In the first week of December, Korean films reached 68.6 percent of all screening movies, surpassing 60 percent for the first time in 14 years. Along with the higher market share, the percentage of Korean films hitting the top 10 rating also increased.