A survey in Korea has found that the price of cinema tickets has been listed as the main obstacle for going to the cinema. The survey of 1,000 men and women undertaken by data company TDI found that 62.9% of the respondents said that expensive tickets were the biggest “disadvantage” of going to the cinema. It was significantly ahead of “inconvenience of going to the bathroom during a movie” at 16.9%, “being disturbed by others by things such as food and cell phone lights” at 14.9%, and “be quiet during the movie” at 5.3%.

Cinema ticket prices have on average gone up by KRW 4,000 (USD $3.06) since 2019. The current typical price in Korea is KRW 14,000 (USD $10.72) on weekdays, which goes up to KRW 15,000 (USD $11.49) on Fridays and weekends, with more for premium formats such as IMAX, ScreenX and 4DX. Korean cinemas have struggled to attract audiences back after the COVID pandemic, with Japanese anime recently outperforming local Korean films.

In response to the question of how interested those surveyed are in the latest released movies, 39.7% responded, “I watch them using other platforms such as OTT (online video service),” ahead of those that responded, “I am interested enough to watch them at a movie theater” (23.4%). Meanwhile, 22.2% said “I am only interested enough to look for news articles or stories” and 14.7% said “I am not interested at all.”

Convenient accessibility (60.8%) was cited as the key reason in choosing a movie theater. This was followed by projection/sound/seats (20.9%), benefits such as discounts/loyalty points (15.7%), and food and beverage services (2.6%).