Film Industry Solidarity, an advocacy group for filmmakers, holds a press conference in Jongno District, central Seoul, on July 4. (FILM INDUSTRY SOLIDARITY)

Korean filmmakers called on cinema giant CGV to take action against high ticket prices at local cinemas during its “Culture Week”.

“We hope that there was no unfair infringement of the rights of producers or distributors in connection with CGV’s ‘Culture Week’ event,” Filmmaker’s Solidarity, a film industry advocacy group, said in a press release on Tuesday. “CGV should be aware that such events cannot continue without a fundamental agreement with the film industry.”

CGV announced last Thursday that it would further expand its “Culture Day” event. On the last Wednesday afternoon of every month, people could watch movies for 7,000 won ($5.26) — about half the usual ticket price. This expansion, dubbed “Culture Week,” began on Monday and runs through Thursday.

“This is significant as it represents the first attempt to make a breakthrough in collaboration with producers and distributors to revive the film industry,” the cinema said in a press release at the time of the announcement.

Filmmaker’s Solidarity welcomed CGV’s decision to hold the “Culture Week” but urged a more fundamental solution, calling on “the three major cinemas (CGV, Megabox, Lotte Cinema) to hold forward-looking discussions on lowering ticket prices, dealing with unfair billing issues and resolving the increasingly strict film monopoly.”

Filmmaker’s Solidarity has repeatedly raised concerns about the theater’s decision to increase ticket prices, which it has done three times in the past two years. Standard ticket prices rose from 12,000 won in 2020 to 15,000 in 2022.

Filmmaker’s Solidarity filed a complaint against the Big Three cinemas with the Korean Fair Trade Commission on July 4, claiming that “the Big Three cinemas reduce the share of small distributors, producers and creators through profit squeezing, thus taking advantage of their market dominance by, for example, supporting their subsidiaries and monopolizing screens.”

CGV’s “Culture Week” event attracted attention after actor Choi Min-sik spoke out about high ticket prices on August 17. On MBC’s “Questions by Son Seok-hee” (translated), Choi pointed to the increased ticket prices as the cause of the decline of the Korean film industry and expressed his concern.

BY KIM MIN-YOUNG ([email protected])