Would Theaters Disappear Permanently?

Theaters with decreased audiences- Sunhee Kim, YTN

 

 Recently, the extinction of theaters is hugely concerned. In fact, according to KOBIS, the revenue of theaters decreased from 970 billion won in 2019 to 598 billion won in 2023.

 

 This decline started during Covid-19. As the Korean government refrained people from going out, people had fewer opportunities to visit theaters. To use public facilities including theaters, they had to install the governmental app and prove that they had gotten the vaccine. After those complicated processes, they had to keep a distance with others and were not able to eat anything inside the cinema. Additionally, the increased number of confirmed coronavirus cases made people afraid of going out.

 

 Although revenue was reduced due to the lockdown, theaters had to take preventive measures like disinfecting, which increased their spending. Constant deficit ended as a raise in movie ticket prices. Before Covid, it was 10,000 won on weekdays and 11,000 won on weekends. However, after Covid, it became 14,000 won on weekends and 15,000 won on weekends. People felt economically burdensome from increased prices and became unwilling to visit theaters.

 

 Increased ticket prices and more leisure time lead audiences to OTT services. Over The Top (OTT) is the practice of streaming content directly across the Internet. Today, over 282 million people watch Netflix worldwide. Other than that, Watcha and Disney Plus are getting more and more users. OTT serves users a diverse genre of movies to watch as much as they want, anywhere and anytime they want. Unlike the theaters, where they pay 15,000 won for just one movie, they can watch thousands of movies relatively cheaply just for 15,000 won for one month. Considering health and economic effects, joining OTT services is a far more efficient choice. The extinction of theaters would take a heavy toll on culture and society. The reduction of cinemas would naturally cause a decrease in produced movies. Then potentially, small film companies might have to stop the creation of various genres of films, and the industry would be disturbed. This would weaken the competitiveness of the movie industry. Moreover, there is a direct correlation between the usage of theaters and other industries. Often when people watch movies at theaters, they have meals and shop at shopping malls. That is one way for shopping malls to earn income. So, if theaters diminish, shopping malls would get huge strokes, too. Through shopping malls and theaters, we experience new things, share our feelings and communicate with each other, and pile our cultural values. Thus, the extinction of theaters means the disappearance of cultural values.

 

 Recently, OTT services and theaters have collaborated in diverse ways like playing OTT movies at theaters. However, closure of CGV cinemas still shows constant pessimistic situations for theaters. It is expected that finding ways for theaters and OTT services to coexist would be most important rather than competing with one another.

 

 

By Staff Reporter Chanhee Youn (1-2)