A 2024 South Korean action crime film, “The Roundup: Punishment”(범죄도시4) has attracted over 10 million viewers. Approximately 2,780 of the nation's 3,400 screens are screening the film, meaning that 80% of the screens are occupied by the film. 

Prior to the pandemic, the movie industry was abuzz with the issue of screen monopoly. The pandemic stifled that debate. In the aftermath of the pandemic, with theaters about to collapse and no indication of a comeback, anti-monopoly advocates became restrained. It was understood that in order to keep the theaters operating, monopolizing them would be necessary. The theater proceeded to increase ticket rates from 10,000 won to 15,000 won, a 50% increase. The topic of conversation was survival. An extraordinary 80% screen monopoly resulted from the dismissal of all arguments.

There has always been discussion about screen monopolies from two angles: "diversity" and "profit." Because it's critical to make sure that the stories we tell on our screens accurately represent the diversity of our world, diversity matters. This entails using actors from diverse origins and crafting narratives that encompass a variety of identities and viewpoints.

A cap on individual films is one way to solve the problem. For example, a rule imposing a cap on the number of screens each movie may ensure that no single movie appears on more than 1500 or 2000 screens. A conceivable way to modify this cap would be to incorporate prime time screenings along with seasonal, quarterly, and monthly modifications. Cinema activists are free to continue pressuring theaters, but scholars ought to provide a logical approach. Theaters should, in the meanwhile, make their own trade-offs in order to optimize their earnings while avoiding controversy. Ultimately, issue will need to be handled collaboratively by the policy authorities. It will most likely require some time and much debate. It might require ten years.