Screen Quota Cut Begins Saturday
Published on | Source
By Kim Tae-jong
Staff Reporter
Fierce opposition from the local film industry aside, the screen quota that kept 146 mandatory days for the screening of domestic movies at theaters, will be halved from Saturday.
Film industry people, however, plan to hold a massive street demonstration in downtown Seoul Saturday.
They will once again voice their anger, claiming that the reduction will damage the local film industry as major Hollywood films will start to dominate screens here and the government will sacrifice the nation's cultural diversity in exchange for a free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States.
Along with the street rally, all Korean filmmakers will stop making films from Saturday until July 3 as a gesture to oppose the quota cut.
On July 3, one-man relay demonstration, which has been joined by actors, directors and other film industry representatives since Feb. 4, will be ended with the final participation of Im Kwon-taek, the nation's renowned director.
But other business sectors including theater owners and film distributors basically welcome the reduction as they will have more freedom to screen more commercially successful films.
However, as the new system will be implemented in mid-year, theaters still have to screen local film for 36 days in the latter half of the year even though they have already screened local films for 73 days in the first half according to the jurisprudential interpretation. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism expects that will effectively put the screen quota this year at 109 days.
But regarding the compensating measures suggested by the government for the film industry, no concrete steps have been made.
The government announced early this year that it will provide 400 billion won to the industry and build 100 more art house theaters in the next five years.
As its main source of funding will be collected by taking 5 percent of the box office revenues, theater owners have opposed the measure.
Some industry experts argue that the reduction is just one of a number of looming problems for the country's film business as the film market here has long suffered from domination of a few local films.
They claim that if some of local films dominate the market, the screen quota system is meaningless for small budget films.
Staff Reporter
Fierce opposition from the local film industry aside, the screen quota that kept 146 mandatory days for the screening of domestic movies at theaters, will be halved from Saturday.
Film industry people, however, plan to hold a massive street demonstration in downtown Seoul Saturday.
They will once again voice their anger, claiming that the reduction will damage the local film industry as major Hollywood films will start to dominate screens here and the government will sacrifice the nation's cultural diversity in exchange for a free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States.
Along with the street rally, all Korean filmmakers will stop making films from Saturday until July 3 as a gesture to oppose the quota cut.
On July 3, one-man relay demonstration, which has been joined by actors, directors and other film industry representatives since Feb. 4, will be ended with the final participation of Im Kwon-taek, the nation's renowned director.
But other business sectors including theater owners and film distributors basically welcome the reduction as they will have more freedom to screen more commercially successful films.
However, as the new system will be implemented in mid-year, theaters still have to screen local film for 36 days in the latter half of the year even though they have already screened local films for 73 days in the first half according to the jurisprudential interpretation. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism expects that will effectively put the screen quota this year at 109 days.
But regarding the compensating measures suggested by the government for the film industry, no concrete steps have been made.
The government announced early this year that it will provide 400 billion won to the industry and build 100 more art house theaters in the next five years.
As its main source of funding will be collected by taking 5 percent of the box office revenues, theater owners have opposed the measure.
Some industry experts argue that the reduction is just one of a number of looming problems for the country's film business as the film market here has long suffered from domination of a few local films.
They claim that if some of local films dominate the market, the screen quota system is meaningless for small budget films.
Advertisement