Landmark Cinema in Central Seoul to Close down
05 July, 2021
Another one of Korea's landmark movie theaters, Seoul Cinema, will close its doors for the final time after decades of entertaining audiences amid an onslaught of new multiplexes.
"Seoul Cinema, which has been much loved as the center of culture in Jongno for some 40 years, will cease doing business on Aug. 31," the theater announced on its website Saturday.
Theater staff said the coronavirus epidemic was the final straw.
The cinema was expanded to three screens in 1989, becoming Korea's first multiplex. But things went downhill in the 2000s, when CGV and Lotte Cinema began building bigger and flashier multiplexes throughout the country.
Other landmark theaters in Jongno experienced similar difficulties in the 2000s. Danseongsa, another privately owned theater dating back to the early 20th century went bankrupt in 2008 and has been turned into a multi-purpose museum showing only historical films, while Piccadilly Theater was sold to Lotte Cinema in 2004 and to CGV later.
Seoul Cinema said it has not decided what to do with the building.
Source:
TAG(s):