Korean Police Uncover Alleged Box Office Rigging, 323 Movies Affected
By Movieguide® Contributor
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Department identified 69 officials from the country’s largest theater chains and 24 movie distributors who have engaged in box office manipulation and fraud in the past five years.
“In collusion with film distributors, the accused theater officials allegedly entered inflated ticket sales information onto the Korean Film Council’s box office compiling service [Kobis] from March 2018 to June this year to boost the box office rankings of the movies released at their theaters,” Seoul police said, according to South Korean news agency Yonhap.
“The accused falsely reported tickets at certain show times were sold out and, as a result of the alleged rigging, a total of 2.67 million viewers were overcounted,” the police added. These overcounted views inflated the performance of 323 movies.
These allegations came from an investigation that began in June after Seoul police raided the offices of three major South Korean movie distributors on suspicion of box office manipulation. The investigation eventually grew to include the 24 movie distributors who were recommended for prosecution.
These distributors allegedly inflated ticket sales by holding “ghost screenings” in the early morning or late evening, purchasing large quantities of tickets without anyone in the audience, a translated report from SBS News explains.
Variety explains that the result of exaggerated box office numbers can boost the movie in the short term by making people think it is more popular than it is, generating public interest–“turning fake success into real success.” While in the long term, inflated numbers can cause higher fees when the movie is licensed for TV and streaming.
The distributors accused responded by claiming that the industry practices are more complex than the police are giving them credit for.
“It’s ridiculous that they are claiming such practices are illegal [for all parties],” said an industry insider. “Some theaters would only select and screen films when distributors bulk-buy seats.”
“The market practice is not so simple,” added Oh Dong-jin, a Seoul-based movie critic. “Companies hold press screenings, VIP screenings and industry screenings ahead of a film’s release. There are many cases where the actual turnout is lower than the pre-booked seats. There may be some cases where a company buys a bunch of tickets and cancels them later just to maintain a certain level of reservation.”
“There needs to be a system to detect these fraudulent cases, but you can’t simply point to the sold-out screenings with low turnout and call it a crime, given the current box office system,” Dong-jin continued.
Movies included in the allegations include popular South Korean movies EMERGENCY DECLARATION, HOT BLOODED, ENDLESS RAIN and THE RED HERRING.
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