2024-05-14 07:58:04
9.73 million viewers… It will likely surpass 10 million on the 15th.
Controversy over monopoly over 85% seat occupancy
Some talk about ‘introducing a screen upper-lower limit system’
‘Crime City 4’ is expected to exceed 10 million viewers around the 15th. It is encouraging that audiences have flocked to the Korean film industry, which has been stagnant since the pandemic, but there is also criticism that “10 million movies were made with a screen monopoly.”
According to the Korean Film Council’s integrated computer network for movie theater admissions, ‘Crime City 4’ exceeded 9.73 million viewers as of the 12th. Based on recent viewing trends, it seems certain that the number of viewers will exceed 10 million on the 15th, Buddha’s Birthday. Already on the 13th, the total cumulative audience for this series (Crime City Parts 1 to 4) exceeded 40 million. It has set quite a milestone in the Korean film industry.
The fact that ‘Crime City 4’ reached the 10 million mark for the third time following parts 2 and 3 shows that Ma Dong-seok’s ‘Crime City world view’ on the screen has been solidly established. Ma Dong-seok has been planning the project since the first part of the ‘Crime City’ series. He said from the beginning that he wanted to make it into a beloved franchise like Hollywood’s ‘Fast and Furious’ series. The so-called Ma Dong-seok-pyo action series has become a ‘trustworthy product’ like a franchise.
However, against the backdrop of the 10 million box office success of ‘Crime City 4’, the issue of screen monopolization has emerged as a hot issue in the film industry. This is because the seat occupancy rate (proportion of seats assigned to the film among all theater seats) of ‘Crime City 4’ in the first week of its release exceeded 85%. Even if you go to a multiplex movie theater, you have to see Crime City, and the number of viewers has already exceeded 8 million even before 2 weeks of release. This is a significant increase compared to the 50% seat occupancy of ‘Pamyo’, which was the first movie of the year to reach 10 million viewers, in the first week of its release, and the 60% range of ‘Spring in Seoul’, which was released in November last year. An investment/distribution company official said, “Even considering the fact that other films avoided the release to avoid competition with ‘Crime City 4,’ this is an excessive market share.”
For this reason, the introduction of a screen upper and lower limit system is being discussed around some film organizations. The purpose is to secure cinematic diversity by guaranteeing screens for small and medium-sized films, and to guarantee the audience’s choice.
‘Crime City 4’ was a box office success, but the audience’s evaluation was poor. Some say that audience fatigue is increasing as the plot of Detective Ma Seok-do defeating the villain is repeated. While the Naver audience rating for ‘Crime City 1’ was 9.28 and 8.98 for Part 2, it dropped to 7.67 for Part 3 and 7.6 for Part 4.
Ma Dong-seok announced that he would film up to 8 episodes of the Crime City series and take on the lead role himself. In addition to the controversy over the screen monopolization, it was faced with the task of providing ‘familiar fun’ to existing loyal audiences while also providing change with new attractions. Pop culture critic Jeong Deok-hyeon said, “It is a content that provided catharsis to the public in that it blows away distrust of public power with a single fist.” He added, “If the future series balances fun and action while controlling power well, it will be completely successful. “We will be able to establish ourselves as a franchise,” he said.
Reporter Choi Ji-seon aurinko@donga.com
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2024-05-14 07:58:04