Culture ministry mulls caps on film screen shares

Culture and Sports Minister Park Yang-woo takes questions from reporters during a press conference at the government complex in the administrative city of Sejong, Monday. Courtesy of Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism

By Anna J. Park

Culture and Sports Minister Park Yang-woo said Monday that the ministry is considering introducing regulations to prevent excessive screenings of films that essentially creates a monopoly. This is to prevent the domination of hit movies in theaters and secure diversity in the nation's film industry.

Park's comments came during his first official press conference at the government complex in the administrative city of Sejong, since he took the helm earlier this month.

Park, a former vice culture minister and culture policy expert, told reporters that the government is currently working on measures to revise the nation's film-related laws to introduce the regulations.

“It is necessary for various films to be shown on screens in order to encourage filmmakers to produce diverse movies. In that regard, I think imposing caps on screening films is needed. We are currently examining concrete issues related to the matter with the National Assembly,” Park said.

He added, however, it's still too early to announce specific measures for this, or a detailed timeline as the ministry needs to work with lawmakers to reach agreement on concrete measures.

The minister also said the ministry plans to announce a set of mid-term and long-term measures to promote and nurture the Korean film industry early next month. Park stressed that he's been keen on meeting various people from film circles, ranging from independent film makers to producers, to listen to their thoughts on the measures.

Regarding questions on inter-Korean cultural exchanges, Park said the government is currently working on creating unified sports teams with North Korea and having a joint march at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, as well as resuming the joint-compiling of a Korean dictionary between the two Koreas. He stressed the government is always ready to strengthen cultural exchanges with the North.

Meanwhile, the new culture minister said his special interests also lie in further promoting the education of the Korean language globally and further supporting hallyu or the Korean Wave, the widespread popularity of Korean pop culture around the world, from music to drama.

“There are 172 King Sejong Institutes in over 50 countries around the world. We need to continuously expand the number of the institutes. There is still more demand to learn the Korean language. We will continue to expand the activities of such Korean language education,” Park said.

The culture minister also stressed that the government will focus on helping the nation's content industry to grow further, as the global spread of hallyu has been beneficial not only to the domestic culture industry, but also Korea's overall exports. He said the entertainment industry should be given more content and financial support to give artists a more space for their created products.

“Korea's content industry reached over $100 billion last year; it is a considerable growth compared to the past, but we still have so much potential in that area to be developed,” the minister added.