People wait in the lobby of a movie theater in Seoul, June 30. Yonhap

The average price of a movie ticket fell below 10,000 won ($7.23) for the first time in two years in the first half of 2024, according to market observers, Wednesday.

Amid the rising cost of living, 10,000 won has been serving as a threshold for determining whether something is cheap or not.

Observers said multiplex cinema chains came up with a range of promotions for moviegoers to buy tickets cheaper than its face value, which mostly exceed 10,000 won.

The promotions included discount coupons and two-for-the-price-of-one deals in a bid to grapple with the rise of over-the-top (OTT) streaming services and the shrinking number of moviegoers, the observers noted.

In a summary report of the Korean film market in the first six months this year, the Korean Film Council (KOFIC) said movie ticket prices averaged 9,698 won over the given time period.

The government-affiliated council explained the price surpassed the 10,000 won for the first time in the January to June period in 2022 and never fell below such a mark until this year.

It analyzed that moviegoers were less interested in going to theaters this year as there were fewer Hollywood blockbusters that were shown on special screens, such as IMAX and Screen X.

The cost to watch a movie on a special screen is higher than that of a standard screen.

But people were willing to pay the price as special screens offer a more immersive viewing experience that streaming services can't.

Under the circumstances, promotions were inevitable for multiplex cinema chains to sustain their business against streaming services in the first half, a securities analyst for the entertainment sector said.

The analyst said on condition of anonymity that the prospects for movie theaters in the long term remain bleak even if there are more movies made for special screens.

"Theaters are not well-suited in advanced economies," he said. "It costs too much to rent spaces, hire staff, pay energy bills and so on, whereas digital technology-based OTT services are free from such costs."

KOFIC said it did not conduct a study on the prospect of theaters while pointing out that sales have not fully recovered since the pandemic era.

Theaters' box office sales nationwide amounted to 610.3 billion won in the first half of 2024, a significant increase from the same periods during the pandemic era — 273.8 billion won in 2020, 186.3 billion won in 2021 and 452.9 billion won in 2022.

The 2024 figure, however, is far smaller than sales before the pandemic, including 930.7 billion won in 2019.

In terms of audience, the number totaled 62.93 million for the first half of 2024.

It was higher than the number during the pandemic — 32.41 million in 2020, 20.02 million in 2021 and 44.95 million in 2022 — but far lower than 109.32 million in 2019.