South Korea political crisis causes cinema slump

Huge weekly demonstrations - complete with free entertainment - are keeping Koreans away from the cinema

The political crisis in South Korea is having unintended consequences for the country's cinemas, as customers stay away in droves.

Huge weekly demonstrations against President Park Geun-hye in Seoul and other major cities, in which hundreds of thousands have called for her to resign, have also kept people away from movie theatres, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper reports.

Korean Film Council statistics for November show a $36.3m (£28.8m) drop in box office takings month-on-month; while more than 17m tickets were sold in October, that fell to just 8.56m in November, the newspaper says. While November is traditionally a slower month as studios save their biggest features for the Christmas holidays, the number of tickets sold is still significantly lower than the same period in 2015.

Saturday nights traditionally see the largest numbers of moviegoers in Seoul, but with over one million thronging the streets every Saturday calling for President Park's resignation, it's thought that only the keenest customers are braving the crowds. Ms Park is at the centre of a corruption scandal in which she's accused of allowing a friend to gain influence for personal gain.

Even films featuring major Korean stars are suffering at the box office, with actor Kang Dong-won's latest feature drawing less than half the numbers of his previous outing, Chosun Ilbo says.

It seems that South Koreans tend to abandon the cinema at times of national crisis. According to The Hollywood Reporter, there was a similar slump in takings in the immediate aftermath of the sinking of the Sewol ferry in April 2014, in which 304 people died.

President Park has made three televised apologies over the scandal, but still remains in power

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