TEMPO.CO, Seoul - The popularity of box office movies fades in South Korea in light of the Sewol ferry incident that claimed hundreds of its passengers’ lives on last Wednesday in the waters of Jindo, Incheon, Joella province. Many moviegoers have canceled to watch the movie as they are still grieving from the incident.
Korean Movie Board stated that the number of theater audience slumped as much as 30 percent. For example, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which reached box office in the country. In the prime show, the number of audiences jumped. However, since the incident, the number of audiences slumped to 50 percent to 108,779 sold tickets compared to last weekend's sales.
Divergent movie also meets the same response. This science-fiction movie ranked second in the box office with the number of audiences slumping: only 91,580 tickets were sold. In third position is Broken with 80,544 tickets. Son of God sits in fourth position with 28,685 audiences, followed by Need For Speed with only 27,723 tickets sold.
The decreasing audience had begun since last April 19. The box office movies should have lured around 600,000 – 800,000 audiences per weekend. But after the incident, the numbers plunged to 435,000.
RINDU P. HESTYA | CHOSUN ILBO
