“The entire film industry is in crisis.” Theater owners appeal for reconsideration of “distance from audience”

Since the 8th of last month, the’social distance’ in the metropolitan area has been upgraded to 2.5 stages, and the movie theater is closed after 9pm. [연합뉴스]

On the 14th, the Korea Theater Association (hereinafter referred to as the Association) raised its voice to “adjust the distance within the theater” on the 14th, as the number of theaters nationwide was on the brink of collapse of 10,000 per day. When reviewing the social distancing stage of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters scheduled for the coming 17th, they asked for a reconsideration of the seats in the theater and the adjustment of the operating hours of the last screening.

The association expressed concern over the current situation where the seat sales rate is 1%, as the total number of visitors dropped to 10,000 per day through a statement saying’Please take a look at the distance to the theater again.’ “Only one or two people sit and watch in a screen with 100 seats.” It is inevitable that the entire industry collapses.”

At the same time, on the 17th, he requested two things when adjusting his distance. First of all, he pointed out the problem of the current one space sitting, and said that “a realistic distance management plan is needed to leave one seat after two seats” so that the party can sit next to each other. He also asked for the operating hours to be adjusted based on the start time of the last episode, rather than limiting it to the closing time. He added that the daily life of a movie after work is collapsing. “For example, if you set the start time of the last episode to 9 o’clock, you can reduce these side effects.”

In fact, on December 8, last year, since the 2.5-step guideline for social distancing in the metropolitan area was implemented, the drop in movie theater audiences has been at its worst. According to the Korea Film Promotion Commission’s Integrated Cinematography Network (kobis), the number of theater audiences nationwide on the 11th was only 10,776, breaking the lowest record since the official count in 2004. The second weekend of January (8-10), the number of spectators also reached a record low of 80741, which was less than 5% of the same period last year (about 1.77 million people) before the corona 19 crisis intensified.

The association said, “There was no secondary infection in the cinema. I will be more thoroughly concerned with quarantine.” The association is a group of major Korean multiplexes and theaters such as CGV, Lotte Cinema, and Megabox. Last month, a statement was distributed asking for a plan to reduce the rent burden for movie theaters.

Reporter Kang Hye-ran [email protected]