Korea to slash movie ticket prices again as part of $44m film industry package

South Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said Saturday that it would spend 65.6 billion won ($44.2 million) on measures to support the film industry, following up on last year's ticket discount program with a fresh round of coupons and expanded funding for domestic production.

The spending is part of a broader 461.4 billion won supplementary budget for culture, tourism and sports that passed the National Assembly on Thursday.

Among the major beneficiaries is the film industry. Under the plan, the government will distribute 4.5 million discount coupons, each cutting 6,000 won off a standard movie ticket. Regular admission at major multiplex chains typically runs between 14,000 and 15,000 won, meaning the coupons would bring prices down to roughly 8,000 to 9,000 won per ticket. Officials did not disclose details of the plan, including when and where the discount tickets will be distributed.

The initiative follows a similar program launched last July, when the government distributed coupons offering the same 6,000 won discount at Korea's major multiplex chains including CGV, Lotte Cinema and Megabox.

Over the first 10 days of the program, theater attendance rose 8.9 percent and box office revenue climbed 11.5 percent, according to Korean Film Council data. However, both fell below the 15 to 30 percent gains multiplex operators had expected and were largely concentrated among a handful of titles.

The ministry also allocated 38.5 billion won for film production funding. That includes 26 billion won for features with production budgets between 10 billion and 15 billion won, 4.5 billion won for independent and art-house films, and 8 billion won for a new program supporting productions that use advanced visual effects.

Beyond film, the supplementary budget includes 32.8 billion won in living subsidies for financially struggling artists, 30 billion won in financing for the arts sector, and 4.1 billion won for discounted performance tickets. The largest share goes to tourism, with 200 billion won in loans for tourism businesses and 28.1 billion won for overseas marketing.

Officials described the package as a move to shield the culture and entertainment sectors from the effects of a global economic slowdown and rising costs.

The measures are the latest in a series of steps by President Lee Jae Myung's administration to resuscitate a film industry that has been slow to recover to pre-pandemic attendance levels.

Since taking office in June 2025, Lee has made support for the sector a stated priority, raising the annual support budget by more than 80 percent last year and backing plans for a new production fund and a virtual studio in Busan.

The government's revival effort received a timely boost from the record-breaking run of "The King's Warden," which had sold 16.3 million tickets since its Feb. 4 opening to become the second most-watched film in Korean cinema history.

In a rare display of official support, Lee congratulated the filmmakers on social media during the film's run, with Culture Minister Chae Hwi-young even visiting director Jang Hang-jun in person to present him with cake and flowers.

The president has also floated the idea of legislating a mandatory waiting period before theatrically released films can move to streaming platforms, a proposal that two pending bills in the National Assembly would set at six months.

On April 9, a coalition of 13 film industry groups and over 580 filmmakers held a press conference calling for the legislation to be withdrawn, arguing that the deeper problem is not films moving to streaming too quickly but major multiplex chains concentrating screens on a few titles and cutting theatrical runs short for the rest.