The horror film ‘4Minutes 44Seconds’, which consists of eight short films that are less than five minutes long, showed off its surprising presence in theaters by attracting over 20,000 viewers in just three days since its release. Following the surprise box office success of the 13-minute short film ‘Night Fishing’, and the success of ‘4Minutes 44Seconds’, low-priced short-form content, or so-called ‘snack movies’, is emerging as a new avenue for stagnant theaters.

The film ‘4Minutes 44Seconds’, starring SHINee‘s Onew, former Lovelyz member Yoo Ji-ae, Infinite’s Lee Sung-yeol, and Ham Yeon-ji, widely known as the second daughter of ‘Ottogi’ Chairman Ham Young-joon, is a compilation of eight short films, each lasting 4 minutes and 44 seconds, that depict the mysterious and terrifying incidents at an apartment in Bukchon, where residents and visitors go missing one after another. With a total running time of 44 minutes, it is a short film that is less than an hour long and will be screened exclusively at Lotte Cinema from the 1st for 4,000 won.

According to the Integrated Computer Network for Movie Tickets on the 5th, the film showed its strength by beating commercial feature-length films such as the Hollywood horror film ‘Long Legs’ and the re-released ‘The Notebook’, rising to 6th place at the box office. It previously attracted 26,265 people to theaters over the three days from the 1st to the 3rd, the weekend of its first week of release.

This figure is also eye-catching as it surpasses the first-week performance (16,636 people) of ‘Night Fishing’, which brought a breath of fresh air to theaters by attracting over 40,000 viewers. ‘Night Fishing’, which stars actor Son Seok-gu and which he also directly produced, is a 12-minute and 59-second short film that was exclusively screened at CJ CGV in June for a ticket price of 1,000 won.

Buoyed by this success, CGV also set the ticket price for the 8-minute short animation ‘No Home - The Beginning of an Evil Relationship’, based on the popular webtoon, at 1,000 won, leading to a positive response from animation enthusiasts.

Having seen the success of these short films, so-called ‘Snack Movies’, theaters and the film industry plan to steadily present short-form content that was not easily seen in regular theaters in the future. Regarding this, a multiplex official also said, “In the era of short-form content, attempts to provide content experiences that fit the trend of ‘time value for money’ will continue.”

In particular, according to CGV‘s analysis, 19% of the audiences who watched the relatively short screening of ’Night Fishing‘ also watched other movies. Accordingly, it is expected that these snack movies will contribute not only to the consumption of short-form content in theaters, but also to the overall revitalization of theaters.


Reporter Seungmi Lee smlee@donga.com