The Ministry of Culture (along with the Uri Party and the extremely reluctant Korean Film Council) announced the long await “aid” package coming to the film industry, to make up for the halving of the screen quota. $521 million over the next five years, going to encourage art-house cinemas and independent film production, increase Korean film exports, and to better design and enforce copyrights and related legislation.

$521 million in “aid” going to the Korean film industry. Koreans spent $939 million going to the movies last year. About $563 million of that went to local movies, most of the rest to Hollywood, with a few dregs to Japan and here and there. So, government “aid” to the local industry could equal nearly 20% of the local industry ($100 million a year to a $563 million industry). Wow. Or just 10% if you include the entire market, but that is still a “wow”.

Now, I have long been a non-fan of Korea’s screen quota. I consider it a placebo that distracts people from