South Korea lost 105 movie screens to closures last year, marking the highest annual total on record as theater operators scale back operations following the pandemic, according to data analyzed via application programming interface from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.
The total surpasses the previous historic high of 90 closures recorded during the 2008 global financial crisis. On Nov. 15, officials reported that 74 additional screens had already closed their doors this year.
The closures are no longer restricted to struggling independent cinemas or small venues. Major multiplex operators are shutting down large, multi-screen branches in high-density areas even as box office numbers rebound.
“Simply film theaters, the venues once functioned as vital community spaces for families and couples, and their sudden disappearance is a major disappointment for local residents,” said Park, a 30-year-old office worker living in Bundang-gu, Seongnam, joongang.co.kr reported.
During the peak years between 2013 and 2019, operators engaged in fierce turf wars to secure prime commercial sites across the country, driving annual theater attendance past the 200 million mark.
That aggressive growth left companies financially exposed when COVID-19 hit. Strict social distancing mandates severely restricted normal operations, but long-term commercial lease agreements—typically spanning 10 years or more with department stores and shopping malls—forced operators to maintain or even expand their footprint.
By the end of 2023, the total number of operational screens reached an all-time high of 3,783. Landlords are now increasingly opting against lease renewals as commercial real estate strategies evolve.
Theater chains are pivoting from quantitative expansion to qualitative growth by shrinking their overall footprints while expanding specialty screening formats. Operators are heavily investing in premium formats like IMAX, ScreenX, and 4DX alongside alternative content such as live concerts and sporting events.
The strategy has begun yielding financial recovery. CJ CGV reported a third-quarter operating profit of 73.6 billion won, its highest since 2016, driven by ticket price adjustments and strong audience turnout for blockbuster titles. Lotte Cultureworks posted a third-quarter operating profit of 14.7 billion won, marking a 77.9 percent increase from the same period last year.
Live entertainment screenings have emerged as key revenue drivers during traditional box office lulls. CGV scheduled the concert film Lim Young Woong “Im Hero The Stadium” for a Nov. 18 release, capturing a 29 percent ticket reservation rate to lead the chain’s pre-sales.
Megabox recorded a 13.5 percent reservation rate for TWS VR Concert: Rush Road, while Lotte Cinema screened a similar virtual reality concert featuring Enhypen in September.
Major chains like CGV, Lotte Cinema, and Megabox are shutting down profitable or large-scale suburban and urban branches because long-term leases signed during the pre-pandemic expansion era are expiring, and operators are strictly reassessing profitability in a permanently altered post-pandemic market.
Specialty formats such as IMAX, ScreenX, 4DX, and sound-specialized venues like Gwang-音 Cinema generate higher per-screen yields through elevated ticket prices and strong consumer demand for immersive, experiential viewings that cannot be replicated at home.
Cinemas are increasingly screening live sports events and virtual reality concerts from popular musical acts like Lim Young Woong, TWS, and Enhypen to diversify revenue streams outside traditional movie releases.
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