Like cinema operators in other countries, CJ CGV saw attendance plummet during Covid-19, with the company turning unprofitable in 2020. The number of cinema-goers in South Korea plunged from 226 million in 2019 to 60 million in 2021, according to the Korean Film Council.
However, the company noticed at the same time that activities like bouldering and rock climbing were becoming increasingly popular among young Koreans, mirroring the trend in other cities around the world.
“As Covid hit, we needed an item to bring people who were staying home back to the movie theatres,” says Seo Min-woo, a manager at CJ CGV who oversaw the planning behind Peakers.
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“We found sports was one of the activities that would bring people outside their homes.”
Though many cinemas around the world face the threat of shutting down thanks to falling attendance figures and competition from streaming services, giving them a second life can often be difficult because of design elements specific to theatres, such as high ceilings, slanted floors and subdivided spaces.
But it is precisely those features that make them good candidates for climbing gyms, according to Seo. CJ CGV now operates bouldering gyms in three of its Seoul multiplexes, with the most recent one opening in March.While outdoor climbing was already popular thanks to the country’s mountainous terrain and easy access to mountains in Seoul, the sport got a further boost after sport climbing made its Olympic debut in Tokyo in 2021, where South Korean athletes Seo Chae-hyun and Chon Jong-won placed in the top 10.
Son Jung-jun, 57, who has operated an indoor climbing centre since 2000 in Seoul, said he estimates there are about 350 such gyms across the country at the moment.
“And it’s kept growing after Covid,” says Son. “Customers want large climbing spaces that are at least about 500 square metres [5,400 square feet], and rock climbing has been in the media a lot, so I think CGV naturally got interested as it looked for alternatives during Covid.”How to bounce back mentally from a big fall in climbing
CJ CGV says that bouldering is the most successful new venture it has embarked on outside its core theatre business, but it is not yet clear how many climbers it will manage to convert into film-goers.
Seo says that its Jongno gym brings in some 250 people a day, which is less than the number of seats that were previously in the cinema.
Peakers has attracted people like Kim Jin-suk, a 30-year-old developer who goes bouldering a couple times a week with his colleagues, who said he mostly streams movies at home. However, he has yet to stay for a movie.
“I thought about doing bouldering after watching a movie but I didn’t have a chance to,” says Kim, who was climbing at a newly opened gym in a CGV multiplex in Shinchon in western Seoul.
“To watch movies, I’d have to do less bouldering. I will try to watch at least one movie on a day I go bouldering if there is a movie I’d like to watch.”
