Premium seats reshaping Korea's summer box office

Movie fans gather at a theater in Seoul, Monday, as a trailer for Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey" is shown on a screen. Yonhap

As local movie fans become more careful with their spending at theaters, high-end cinema experiences led by the IMAX giant screen are emerging as the main catalyst behind Korea’s summer box office rebound.

The domestic box office is seeing a strong comeback as major summer blockbusters bring crowds back to theaters. Driven by the hot weather and peak holiday season, people are heading to air-conditioned cinemas for big-screen visual spectacles they cannot get at home on streaming platforms.

According to recent data by CJ CGV, the nation's largest cinema chain, nationwide theater attendance reached roughly 9.55 million from July 29 to Aug. 9. This marks the highest summer attendance since 2019, and showed a 45.6 percent jump from the same period last year. The multiplex chain added visitor numbers at CGV theaters alone rose 58.1 percent.

Instead of going to regular screens, moviegoers are choosing high-tech theaters that offer an experience worth the ticket price. Data from the Korean Film Council showed that Hollywood blockbusters "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" and "The Odyssey" captured over 80 percent of total box office revenue during the peak holiday season, while CJ CGV's data showed average seat occupancy for their premium screens reached between 70 percent and 80 percent.

Promotional posters for the movie "The Odyssey" are displayed at a theater in Seoul, Monday. Yonhap

High ticket prices are changing how local audiences watch movies, turning single titles into multiscreen experiences.

The CGV data showed that 11.3 percent of moviegoers from July 29 to Aug. 9 watched a film more than once, with 56.8 percent of these repeat viewers watching both "Spider-Man" and "The Odyssey." In addition, nearly half of all repeat moviegoers picked special screens, and 15.7 percent watched "Spider-Man" again in a different format to compare the visual experience.

However, the high demand for IMAX screens has created serious market side effects. Because Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey" was shot entirely with IMAX cameras, ticket scalping for prime seats has surged.

On secondhand platforms, prime seats at CGV Yongsan are being resold for upwards of 100,000 won ($71), around five times the standard ticket price ranging between 17,000 won and 21,000 won.

Furthermore, the dominance of Hollywood blockbusters in high-margin theaters is squeezing out mid-budget domestic movies.

While upcoming Korean films like "Okay! Madam: Bon Voyage" and "OK Madam 2" struggle to secure prime screening hours, concerns are growing among local distributors that the audience concentration on a few spectacle-driven films will leave little room for domestic stories as the autumn season approaches.

Faced with this summer squeeze, domestic distributors are moving their big titles to fall, aiming for the late September Chuseok holiday period instead. Highly-anticipated upcoming titles include historical drama "The Assassin(s)," franchise sequel "Tazza: The Song of Beelzebub," local comedy remake "The Intern" and action feature "Reawaken Man: The Red."