After the US animation blockbuster "Frozen 2" was released, it swept US$100 million in the first week of the United States, and the box office performed strongly. In the South Korean market, "Frozen 2" has a platoon rate of over 85%, and it welcomed 600,000 viewers on the first day of its release, firmly ranking the box office champion of the day. The second-ranked South Korean movie "Black Project" has a schedule rate of less than 10%, and only 69,000 people watched it, with a difference of 8.6 times in the audience. Such a wide disparity has triggered protests from South Korean director Zheng Zhiying and other filmmakers, who believe that blockbuster films have monopolized the film arrangement, which has reduced the opportunities for local films to meet with audiences and affected box office performance.
According to South Korean media reports, South Korean filmmakers collectively held an emergency press conference in Seoul to protest the high proportion of the Disney movie "Frozen 2", and remind the public to pay attention to the fairness of the film market. Zheng Zhiying pointed out that under the overwhelming lineup of "Frozen 2", even if the audience wants to watch different types of movies, they don't have much choice. Hollywood blockbusters' severe monopoly on the number of movie theaters has hurt the diversity of Korean movies.
Zheng Zhiying has won prizes at the Tokyo Film Festival and the Baeksang Art Awards in Korea. He has a certain position in the Korean industry and his appeal has attracted much attention. Zheng Zhiying said that the press conference was not to suppress "Frozen 2," but to point out the long-standing problem of blockbuster monopoly, which undermined the development structure of the industry. In the future, it is hoped that laws and policies can directly restrict the "screen monopoly" and give different types of films more room for survival.
Korean audiences have a lot of controversy on this matter. Some people agree with the views of these Korean filmmakers and support the amendment of the film law to protect the diversity of films. Some audiences hope that local directors themselves should produce more good films that can attract the audience. Can't just blame the opponent for being too strong.
Actually, the monopoly of commercial blockbusters is not only in South Korea, but has also caused a lot of controversy in Europe and America recently. In recent years, the "occupation" of the market by superhero movies has caused the celebrity director Martin Scorsese to take advantage of Marvel. He was worried about the "disappearance" of films that valued humanistic emotions, but was criticized by some audiences as "jealous" of the box office of Marvel movies. Actors such as Robert Downey Jr., Benedict Cumberbatch, etc. who have starred in Marvel’s "heroes" have also spoken out that the film industry should not be "ruled" by one type of commercial film, and the artistic value of small-cost films It should also be recognized and supported in the theater.
What is the source of such a monopoly? In 2016, Netflix President Reed Hastingsich criticized that it was the commercial pursuit of major US chains that contributed to the oligopoly in the film industry. Several major theaters control the film scheduling, which greatly affects the final box office of the film. Commercial blockbuster winners take all, the living space of small-cost movies is squeezed, and the audience's choices are also very passive. Film studios all hope to break this monopoly, but they "don't know how to do it." Hastings believes that the simultaneous screening of streaming media can give more opportunities for low-cost movies that cannot be seen in theaters.
