Bong Joon-ho is one of South Korea's most successful directors, but his latest film is running into major obstacles in his home country.
South Korea's largest cinema chain, CJ CGV, is refusing to screen Bong's Netflix-produced sci-fi drama "Okja" over Netflix's plan to stream the film online simultaneously with its theatrical release, according to the Korea Times. The country's second- and third-largest chains are also weighing boycotts.
The moves come just weeks after "Okja" premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, where its inclusion in the lineup, along with Noah Baumbach's Netflix-produced "The Meyerowitz Stories," stirred controversy among some cinephiles who view the rise of streaming services as an existential threat to the traditional movie business.
Should the majority of South Korean theaters refuse to screen "Okja," which is set to open June 29, it would deliver a significant blow to its overall box office. Bong's last film, the 2014 dystopian sci-fi thriller "Snowpiercer," was a major hit in South Korea, pulling in roughly $60 million there while earning less than $5 million in its limited U.S. release. His 2006 monster movie, "The Host," was an even bigger smash in his home country, pulling in more than $64 million.
But despite the pressures to create a window between theatrical and online releases, as Amazon typically does with its films, Netflix seems unlikely to budge from its distribution model.
In an interview with The Times last year, Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos insisted that the company's streaming-centered approach offers films like "Okja" the chance to reach the widest possible worldwide audience.
"I think movies are special because of how well they're crafted, how well they're acted and shot � not because of the room that you saw them in first," he said, adding, "I don't believe it's sensible to hold back 81 million people from watching a movie so that a couple of hundred people can see it in a theater."
