The Korean theaters are one of the entertainment industry outlets affected by the coronavirus, forcing almost all people to stay at their homes to avoid getting infected by the deadly virus.

This year, the Korean box office experienced a down surge of demands, as reflected in the sales figures.

Korean theaters are almost canceled

Allkpop shared on December 15 (Tuesday) that the box office sales in South Korea dropped by 1 Trillion KRW, or $914,579,200. Also, the joint sales of significant South Korean film firms this year are expected to be showing figures that are decreased by 60 percent compared to the whopping statistics in 2019.

According to Naver, on December 14 (Monday), the Korean Film Promotion Committee made known a report with the title "Covid19 Impact: Provisional accounts of the Korean Film Industry in 2020." It is the total sales tickets, advertising profits, and stores from January to September 2020.

This year, it shows the sums of 479.6 Billion KRW ($493 Million), which reflects a 69.2 percent downflow compared to the whopping 1.5587 ($1.43 Billion) figures in 2019.

The saddening figures shown by the committee makes avid theater goers in South Korea worry that the firm might face a closure since only a few risk-takers are willing to purchase tickets amid the pandemic.

And due to the enhanced social distancing measures imposed by the government, it is hard for theaters to renovate and make arrangements as profit is hard to catch.

Full closure of major theaters?

The profits made by theaters all depend on the movies and the demands of the crowd. With COVID-19 affecting some staff and crew of production teams in the country, filming movies were halted, facing uncertainty like no other.

That said, 93 theaters in South Korea were temporarily closed in March, including Lotte Cinema, CGV, CineQ, and Megabox.

To date, the firms have not decided whether they will re-open or impose total closure. Stay tuned!

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