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CJ E&M Expected to See Turnaround After 'Parasite' Wins Palme d'Or at Cannes

A man looks at the poster for the film "Parasite" at a theater in Seoul on Sunday. /Yonhap

After posting losses in the film business for the past three years, CJ E&M is very likely to see a Reversal of Fortune thanks to director Bong Joon-ho's latest film "Parasite", for which huge hype has been created after it won the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival last week.  

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CJ E&M is the largest investor in the film. The company formed a consortium along with other investors last year and put W12.5 billion into the movie's production (US$1=W1,186). It is also the film's distributor.

The film has already been pre-sold to 192 countries, setting a new record for a Korean movie, and is seeing strong advance ticket sales ahead of its release here on Thursday.

The company's film business posted an operating profit of W6 billion in 2015 thanks to "Veteran" and "Ode to My Father", both of which attracted more than 10 million viewers, but had performed poorly since then.

Industry insiders say it is expected to post a healthy profit this year due to "Parasite".

"Our film business posted an operating profit of W18.8 billion in the first quarter of this year as our own project "Extreme Job" topped the local box office", said a spokesperson for CJ E&M. "With the success of "Parasite", there's growing expectation that we can not only recover past losses but achieve the highest profit ever".

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"Parasite" is directed by Bong Joon-ho, and features Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Wooshik, Park So-dam, Jang Hye-jin. Release date in Korea: 2019/05/30.

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