"300 Billion Won Was Induced by 'Silmido' "

If the movie "Silimido" succeeds in attracting 10 million people, its net income for ticket sales will amount to 70 billion won. With additional incomes for copyright sales and exports to foreign markets including Japan, they will hit another jackpot in addition to the box-office hit success in Korea.


The interesting thing is what the Bank of Korea (BOK) has to say about the movie's influence on the Korean economy. According to BOK's analysis on February 2, if 70 billion won was earned by attracting 10 million moviegoers, the production inducement by the movie will amount to 135 billion won, and the added value inducement will amount to 59.4 billion won. The amounts were derived from multiplying the production inducement index of 1.928 and the added value inducement index of 0.849 to the box-hit income. The numbers were from the bank's industry relation table.


"The movie's influence in the economy is comparable to that of producing 3,620 New EF Sonatas, 14.91 million won per vehicle, in terms of production inducement", said Input & Output Team Manager Kim Jong-gui at the BOK. The BOK has calculated the product inducement amount to 115.8 billion won and the added value inducement amount to 36.4 billion won for the movie "Friend" with their audience number of 7.05 million won and the box-office income of 49.4 billion won.


"Aside from the audience number and the box-office income, the economic influence is estimated to be around 300 billion won considering tourists' visit to the shooting site of 'Silmido' and also considering the strong brand power effects of the cultural industry", said senior researcher Ko Jung-min at the Samsung Economic Institute.


The number 10 million is spreading complex shocks through the cultural industry. It indicates that one-fifth of the national population of 48 million people has watched the movie.


"The Japanese animation had a few cases where movies by Director Miyazaki Hayao, including 'Mononoke Hime,' recorded unprecedented hits of attracting more than 10 million viewers, but this is a very rare case still", said cultural critic Kim Ji-ryong. "A movie with 10 million in audience sounds almost impossible, even in Japan whose population is as three times that of Japan".


Of course, we have a myth about the number "10 million" in the Korean cultural industry as well as in the movie industry. Cho Yong-pil, Kim gun-mo, Cho Sung-mo, and several others have conquered the 10 million record sales in the music industry. "Taebaeksanmak" and "Samgukji" by Lee Mon-yeol were the steady sellers that reached the number. "Silmido" reached the number only two months after its opening.


"I acknowledge that the movie created the direct psychological influence in the movie industry where the audience number remains only in the millions. People think that the movie has instantly overcome the scale limit", said Shim Jae-myoeng of Myeong Film.


Of course, the movie is not without criticism. Another cultural critic, Kim Dong-shik said, "Considering the fact that the movie targets the adult audience and excludes the children from their audience, one in three adults have seen the movie, and it is too much of an imbalanced appetite, meaning a certain bias has played a role".


A related official in the movie industry said, "What we need is 10 movies with millions of viewers, not one single movie with tens of millions of viewers", adding, "The myth of Korean-style blockbusters with its enormous success in the box office could destroy the diversity of movies".

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