In the last five years, at least 323 movies released domestically have been found to have manipulated their box office rankings. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Department’s Anti-Corruption and Public Crime Investigation Unit sent 69 officials from three multiplexes – CGV, Lotte Cinema, and Megabox – and 24 distributors to prosecutors for obstruction of justice. The box office hoarding allegations that have been circulating for years have been proven to be true.
What you can control and how you can control it
They are accused of interfering with the operation of the Korean Film Council’s (KFC) integrated computerized network by entering false ticketing information to make it appear that certain time slots were sold out between March 2018 and last June. Box office aggregation is done by sending movie attendance and revenue to a computerized network. The manipulation resulted in criminal prosecution of distributor officials whose attendance figures were inflated by more than 20,000.
Allegedly manipulated movies
Showbox’s “Emergency Declaration,” Kidari Studios’ “Hot Blood,” and “Rain and Your Story” were among the films on the list of suspected tampering. The documentary film You Are My Country, about the appointment of former Attorney General of the Republic of Korea, has also been accused of ranking manipulation. Police officials pointed to the lack of sanctions for movie distributors as the entity that transmits data such as audience numbers is limited to movie theaters, and said they plan to recommend improvements to the system to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the National Film Council.
