This year, there were two Korean movies which had over ten million filmgoers. The Thieves(13.02million) and Gwanghae(11.5million) are these movies. However, if we look attentively, a poison called “big movie companies monopoly” exists.
Big movie companies monopolize production and distribution in the movie market. There are 3 big movie companies, CJ, Lotte, and Showbox, and numerous small movie companies in Korea. These big movie companies possess over 90% of Korea’s movie market. Big movie companies show their movies at their own multiplex theaters.
In addition, the screen quota system forces the movie industry to show Korean movies for at least 20% of the days of the year. Because of the screen quota, there is plenty room for Korean movies. However, big movie companies use this in a bad way for profit. In their theaters, they give some screens to small companies but not as many as to their movies. Big movie companies make it hard to break this barrier.
Because of this, there are many side effects. First, our right to choose a movie is limited. For example, we get information from various media and go to watch a movie. However, if that movie is not made by a big movie company or the movie is an art movie, we can rarely watch it. It isn’t shown at some theaters because it is not made by a big movie company. In this situation, we inevitably choose another movie made by a big movie company.
Second, there is little place for small movie companies and art movies in the movie industry. An example of this is Pieta. Pieta is a Korean art movie awarded the Leone d’Oro (first prize) at the . The movie was made by a small movie company, so it was shown in few theaters. Also, big movie companies always distribute their movies preferentially. Because of this, there is no room for small movie companies’ movies.
In addition, big movie companies do many events to gather attendance. Gwanghae is a representative movie. CJ, which is the distribution company of Gwanghae, scheduled the release of the movie for September 20, but they changed suddenly to September 13, so many small movie companies’ movies had damage. Moreover, they organized events to gather attendance, and people who had “gwang” or “hae” in their names got a 1+1 discount. They were criticized by people because of the events and releasing the movie earlier, but they still do what they want to do.
There could be some solutions to these problems. If filmgoers make their voices louder, it could reduce the damage. For example, in 2009, Warnangsori was an art movie, but the movie was seen by 2 million filmgoers. Like this, if filmgoers make their voices louder, we can save art movies. Also, the government has to make a policy that one movie can be shown on only a particular number of screens and support art movies and small movie companies’ movies.
