Retro trend in movie theaters

As new premieres became rare due to COVID-19, movie theaters are coming up with strategies to attract audiences. Some chose to play old popular South Korean movies or past Academy Awards winners.

CGV will launch Signature K, a theater dedicated to showing South Korean movies, on Wednesday. The theme of this month is the beginning of South Korean movies’ renaissance. “Taegukgi” and “JSA,” two movies thought to open up the renaissance of South Korean movies in the 2000s, will be screened from Wednesday and March 24, respectively. “Taegukgi” was the second South Korean movie to be seen by over 10 million viewers in movie theaters after “Silmido.” “It is a plan to showcase South Korean movies from around 2000 again in theaters when the domestic movie scene was growing,” said Kim Hong-min, the head of the CGV plan and strategy team. “Audiences can enjoy digitally remastered movies with better video and audio quality.”

Lotte Cinema launched Memory about Cinema earlier this year, a year-long event to play movies under monthly themes. The theme of January was love and “La La Land,” “Notting Hill,” “The Apartment,” and “Your Name” were screened. It was followed by the theme of Academy Awards in February, in which “Spotlight,” “Moonlight,” and “Manchester by the Sea” were played. This month’s theme is money and “The Big Short,” “Margin Call,” “Default,” and “Microhabitat” will be simultaneously screened from March 24.


Jae-Hee Kim jetti@donga.com