The film industry and theaters seem to have been hit hard by the political and social chaos following President Yoon Seok-yeol‘s declaration and lifting of martial law. Despite the fact that it is the ’end of the year peak season‘ with a slew of big new releases, the number of moviegoers has plummeted, and some movies have canceled their scheduled events or postponed their release dates. In the case of ‘Firefighter’, which was released on the 4th, an unexpected ‘political spark’ flew.

○ Release postponed due to sharp decline in audience

According to the Integrated Computer Network for Movie Tickets, the number of moviegoers who visited theaters on the weekend of the 6th to the 8th right after martial law was declared was 1.64 million, a 9.3% decrease from the previous week (November 29th to December 1st) when 1.81 million people visited theaters. In particular, on Saturday, when President Yoon’s impeachment was rejected, the number of viewers decreased by over 120,000.
Although Korean and Hollywood films targeting the peak season for year-end theaters such as ‘Wicked’, ‘Moana 2’, and ‘1 Seung’ were released in theaters, it seems that it was not enough to bring the confused hearts of viewers to the theaters due to the chaotic times.

In the meantime, the new film ‘It‘s Okay, It’s Okay, It‘s Okay!’, starring Lee Re, Jin Seo-yeon, and Son Seok-gu, which was scheduled to be released in theaters on the 24th, has postponed its release indefinitely. It can be interpreted that ‘It’s Okay, It‘s Okay, It’s Okay!’, which is a relatively small-scale film, was judged to be difficult to compete with year-end blockbusters due to the drastically reduced theater audience.

The comedy film ‘It‘s a Fairy Tale, But It’s Free’, along with lead actors Park Ji-hyun, Choi Si-won, and Sung Dong-il, also decided not to hold a production briefing that was scheduled to be held on the 12th. However, since the release date is not within this year but in January of next year, we are not considering changing the release date yet.

○Not a guilt-by-association system... The ‘Firefighter’ wave

Despite the ‘Kwak Do-won risk’ of the lead actor who caused a drunk driving controversy, the movie ‘Firefighter’ which was doing well by going back and forth between 1st and 2nd place at the box office has unexpectedly become the target of a ‘boycott movement’ by some netizens due to the current situation. The background is that the fact that the younger brother of director Kwak Kyung-taek, who directed the film, is Rep. Kwak Gyu-taek (Seo-gu, Dong-gu, Busan), who left the plenary session during the vote to impeach President Yoon Seok-yeol in line with the party line of ‘opposition to impeachment’, spread quickly online.

However, regarding the unexpected repercussions, many netizens and viewers are voicing self-restraint, saying, “A film that contains the hard work of many staff members and actors should not be evaluated with an undemocratic ‘guilt-by-association perspective’ just because they are someone‘s family.”

In addition, there were reactions that the film is leading the way in improving the treatment of firefighters, such as the ‘119 Donation Challenge’, in which audiences who watched the film donate 119 won per ticket to the establishment of a national fire hospital scheduled to open in 2025, and that the film’s sincerity should not be diminished by external issues that have nothing to do with the film. There is.


Reporter Seungmi Lee smlee@donga.com