More discounted movie tickets, support measures for Korea’s culture sector as 461.4 billion won supplementary budget passes

A theater in Yongsan District, central Seoul, on March 25. [NEWS1]

A supplementary budget of 461.4 billion won ($310 million) has been approved for the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to minimize damage to the industry amid economic uncertainty stemming from the Iran war.

 

Discounts on movie and performance tickets, along with a range of support measures, will be introduced to boost culture, tourism and sports industries, the Culture Ministry said Saturday.

 

Of the total, 65.6 billion won will be allocated to the film industry, which has yet to fully recover from the Covid-19 downturn.

 


A total of 4.5 million discounted movie tickets will be distributed. Each ticket will be discounted by 6,000 won. Discounted movie tickets have proven effective in revitalizing theaters. Last year, the average number of daily attendance reached 435,000 between July 25 and Sept. 2 — when the government issued the first batch of discounted movie tickets — about 80 percent higher than the average from Jan. 1 to July 24. 

 

Another 38.5 billion won will be allocated to support the production of Korea’s mid-budget and independent films. 

 

The Culture Ministry also said it has created a living support fund for artists whose livelihoods have been threatened by the economic downturn. A total of 32.7 billion won will be set aside for this purpose, in addition to 30 billion won in financial support for the arts sector. 

 

Performance tickets will also be discounted, with 400,000 tickets to be offered at a 10,000 won discount each. 

 

In the tourism sector, 260 billion won of the supplementary budget has been allocated, 200 billion won of which will be used to support tourism businesses financially. 

 

“The latest supplementary budget is an investment to preemptively respond to an emergency situation,” said Culture Minister Chae Hwi-young in a release. 

 

“The budget is expected to achieve two goals simultaneously: stabilizing livelihoods for artists and those in the tourism and cultural sectors, and revitalizing domestic demand and regional economies through increased consumption.”

BY JIN EUN-SOO [[email protected]]