“Film Distribution Powerhouse” CJ ENM Fell To Last Place Last Year
Known as the No.1 movie distributor for many years, CJ ENM shocked many people as it recently dropped to the last place
According to the Korea Film Council on April 17th, CJ ENM accounted for only 6.55% of audience share last year as films with high expectations, such as “The Moon”, “The Boys” and “Alienoid 2” failed to gain box office success.
In particular, Showbox, which had been behind major film distributors, pushed CJ ENM to the last place thanks to the big success of “Exhuma”.
Plus M Entertainment took the top spot by attracting more than 20 million admissions (17.2%). Among domestic distributors only, Plus M, which released box office hits “12.12: The Day” and “The Roundup: No Way Out” last year, showed an overwhelming figure of 35.5%.
Lotte Culture Works, the distributor of “Noryang: Deadly Sea”, “Single in Seoul”, “Sleep” and “Concrete Utopia”, placed 2nd among Korean distributors with 11.9%, followed by Next Entertainment World (NEW) in third place.
Last year, CJ ENM suffered a loss of more than tens of billions of won due to its failed movies. Not a single movie they introduced last year surpassed 1 million admissions. Even “Alienoid 2”, an ambitious project released earlier this year, fell short and couldn’t reach the break-even point. While CJ ENM was suffering a crisis in filmmaking, CEO Koo Chang-geun decided to take charge of the movie division this year, but his sudden resignation recently has further put the company in confusion.
While content shifted to OTT, movies such as “The Roundup: No Way Out”, “12.12: The Day”, etc. still attracted more than 10 million moviegoers. At the beginning of this year, Showbox also achieved the 10-million-admission milestone with “Exhuma”. On the other hand, CJ ENM has yet to release a box office hit this year.
According to the “Film Consumer Behavior Survey” conducted by Consumer Insights, OTT viewing accounted for 74% of movie-watching methods experienced by consumers in the past year, surpassing theatrical viewing (66%). However, in the case of the latest movie releases, responses indicating “going to the theater to watch” was 37%, which was higher than OTT preference (33%).
Source: daum
