The series of one-man protests by a rotation of 146 members of the film community in opposition to the government’s reduction of the screen quota has come to an end, with director Im Kwon-taek being the last one to take a symbolic stand. The biggest names in acting, directing, and production all took turns to protect the measure which guarantees Korean films receive a certain share of screen time in the face of competition from big-budget imports. Their fight against American cultural ransacking and the government’s surrendering to it has been a truly world-class gesture.
As the protest’s participants prepare for an even bigger fight, their concerns are turning out to have been accurate. In the first half of this year, Korean movies accounted for 58 percent of ticket sales. That is not bad if you compared it to the first half of last year, when they brought in 59 percent of the moviegoing public, but the high figures for the first half of this year are purely attributable to the success of the film The King and The Clown. The other roughly 40 films released in the same period failed to break even. In May, Korean films were shown to 40 percent of domestic audiences, and in May and June they occupied even less screen time. People in the industry have high hopes for two major South Korean summer releases, The Host and Hanbando, which each cost around 10 billion won (10 million USD), but Hollywood has come up with its summer blockbusters Superman Returns and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, each of which cost close to 200 billion won.
The destiny of a film hangs on the number of screens on which it is played, which in turn is determined by who directs and stars in it as well as how much money is spent on marketing. You cannot blame theaters for allocating more time on their screens for movies that provide more stable ticket sales. The very reason the Korean film industry has endured so far is because theaters were forced to allot a specific amount of screen time to domestic movies. Now that the screen quota is half of what it used to be, successes such as The King and The Clown end up being a form of poison, because theaters only have to show one successful Korean film and then they are free from any further obligations. They have no need to show mid- and low-budget films.
Production companies lean towards films that imitate Hollywood and have big-name stars. They place their bets more on marketing than on content. There ends up being no reason to work hard to produce mid- and low-budget films. It becomes hard to produce movies like Welcome to Dongmakgol, Marathon, and The King and The Clown. Prior to the signing of a free trade pact with the United States, 100 films on average were produced yearly in Mexico. The fact that now only around five are made each year speaks volumes.
Reducing the screen quota was a prerequisite to starting the free trade negotiations with the U.S. There is no way the negotiations will be concluded within the scheduled time limit, and when time does run out, the screen quota and all other prerequisites that were met should be restored to what they were before.
[Editorial] Government should restore previous screen quota |
