‘Crime City 4’, which is about to become a 10 million film, has 70-80% theaters occupied.
The film industry criticizes, “Theaters don’t do anything in 5-10 minute bursts… it’s too much.”
A lot of audience… There was also an assessment “I don’t see a suitable opponent.”
Multiplex “It is mainly arranged for films that are watched by a large number of audiences.”
‘Crime City 4’ surpassed 8 million viewers on the 6th, 13 days after its release. / Photo = News 1 Although there has been controversy in the film industry about ‘Crime City 4’, which was held back for 10 million films, over ‘slack screening’, multiplex companies said, “It is not a screening He explained, “We mainly organize works that are of great public interest, but (with the exception of Crime City 4), we don’t see any work worth including.” This is an inevitable aspect due to the state of recently released films and the structure of the multiplex industry.
According to the integrated movie theater ticket network on the 8th, ‘Crime City 4’ attracted 8,718,696 audience from the previous day (the 7th). This is a performance achieved only two weeks after its release on the 24th of last month, and if this trend continues, it is expected to easily exceed 10 million.
Regardless of the box office performance, the film industry raised issues with ‘Crime City 4’. Lee Ha-young, CEO of Haha Films, who was a presenter at the ‘Debate for Restoring the Korean Film Ecosystem’ held recently at the Jeonju Central Vision Center, said, “Theaters are ruining the film industry by scheduling screening of ‘Crime City 4’ in 5-10 minute increments. He argued, “Isn’t it too much to do?”
It is noted that it is a problem that screens focus too much on certain films and that emphasis should be placed on the choice of the audience and the variety of films. Although this is a simple view, the situation of multiplexes who need to make a profit is different. They complain that they prioritize films that are likely to be seen widely by the public and allocate screens to theatres, but, with the exception of ‘Crime City 4’, there are no suitable works. Seat sales rate and seat occupancy figures on the 27th of last month, the first weekend of release. Not only did ‘Crime City 4’ have a high seat occupancy rate, but also a high seat sales rate. / Source = Computer network screen integrated movie theater admission ticket An official from Lotte Cultureworks, which operates Lotte Cinema, said, “Distributors who decide when to release a movie tend to avoid releasing ‘Crime City,’ which is sure to be. box office hit somewhat with the release of the fourth series.” He said, “Being the recent series of films like this, it was inevitable that a lot of ‘Crime City 4’ was included due to timing.”
Comparing the ‘seat occupancy rate’ and the ‘seat sales rate’ published on the integrated movie theater admissions computer network lends strength to the multiplex explanation. Seat occupancy is an indicator of the percentage of theaters allocated by a movie theater, and seat sales rate is an indicator of how many audiences actually attended the movie.
‘Crime City 4’ had an occupancy rate of around 85% for the first week after its release (April 24-30). This means that nine out of ten theaters play it. This ratio dropped to the 70% range entering the second week (May 1-7), but still accounts for the absolute majority. However, ‘Crime City 4’ also had a high seat sales rate. The first weekend after its release, it reached 40%. There were many screening halls, but the audience was also full. Even in the second week, the seat sales rate was higher than most films except the animation ‘Kung Fu Panda 4’, which was widely seen during the Children’s Day holiday (May 5).
For the screen monopoly logic to be strong, the seat share (supply) should be low due to the lack of ‘Crime City 4’ despite the high seat sales rate (demand) of other films, but in reality, this was not the case . Of course, it is assumed that factors such as ‘Crime City 4’ were heavily assigned at screening times when many audiences also played a role, but even considering this, the gap with films such as ‘Stuntman’ and ‘Challengers’ are big. Multiplexes that suffered heavy losses during the COVID-19 (new coronavirus infection) period need to make up for it urgently. This is because it is a crisis situation where local movie theaters that do not attract many audiences are closed in order to improve their financial structure. CJ CGV sent an official letter requesting the termination of the lease agreement, saying it would close its Nonhyeon branch in Incheon last February, and Lotte Cultureworks recently closed its Dunsan branch in Daejeon.
An official in the movie theater industry said, “The operational loss incurred during the COVID-19 period was very large. “We are still experiencing financial difficulties because we did not get policy support or compensation according to the movie theater closure policy at the time,” he explained “It seems that the difficult reality facing multiplexes and the circumstances as distributors are adapting the release dates of films have led to a temporary controversy over poor sales.”
As the general film industry is in difficult times and the financial structure of film theaters has deteriorated, it is not easy to increase the proportion of various film arrangements or theaters dedicated to art films. They all agreed that the restoration of Korean cinema was an urgent priority and that discussions with movie theaters were needed on the issue of screen bias that arose as a result of ‘Crime City 4’ as well.
A CJ CGV official said, “We will painfully accept the concerns of the film industry. However, the basic principle is to focus on works that are widely seen by the audience, so it is absurd to push a particular film,” he said “It is a question of which came first, the chicken or the egg, but like other films tried to bypass ‘Crime City 4’ and release it, allocating theaters was difficult.” There is also this corner side. “Because the programs are arranged to reflect interest, I think the debate will be resolved naturally as more diverse works come out soon,” he added.
Hankyung.com reporter Kim Bong-gu kbk9@hankyung.com
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