Reason Behind the 'Odyssey' Ticketing Chaos: Mass Purchases Uncovered

[Anchor]

Even after surpassing 10 million moviegoers, the ticketing war to secure prime seats at IMAX theaters for the film Odyssey continues. Amid this fierce competition where tickets sell out in an instant, circumstances have been captured indicating that nearly 300 tickets were swept up using macro programs.

This is a exclusive report by reporter Dong Eunyeong.

[Reporter]

"If it is not an IMAX theater, you have not truly seen Odyssey."

As the first movie in cinematic history to shoot its entire runtime with dedicated IMAX film cameras, an IMAX ticketing craze erupted simultaneously with the release of Odyssey.

For the Yongsan IMAX theater in Seoul, often referred to as "Yong-Amax," notification services even emerged to alert people the exact moment ticketing windows open.

[Park Min-young and Han Ji-min / Gwanak-gu, Seoul: Once ticketing begins to open, an alarm comes from there, and as soon as the alarm pops up first, I think I managed to grab it there. I think it took 3 or 4 weeks (to successfully book).]

Transactions have taken place at prices over five times higher on second-hand trading platforms and elsewhere, but SBS coverage confirmed circumstances indicating that scalpers purchased large quantities using macros, which are automatic repetitive input programs.

For about a month after its release, a single account booked a staggering 286 tickets, an amount equivalent to the total number of seats in a standard screening room.

Combining the seats purchased by the top 5 accounts exceeds 1,100 seats. It was also found that during July and August, when blockbuster films such as Hope, Spider-Man, and Odyssey were screened, the number of macro-suspected ticketing attempts blocked by CGV reached 230 million.

During the same period, the ticket cancellation rate at the Yongsan IMAX theater exceeded 50 percent, leading to rumors that scalpers canceled their tickets after failing to sell them following bulk purchases.

[Jang Jun-seo, Lee Hyun-jin, and Park Kyung-hwan / Dongjak-gu, Seoul: It was almost impossible to secure any. It felt like competing against a machine. It seems scalpers buy them up and then cancel right before the movie.]

Controversy also arose the day before yesterday (September 15) when a post was uploaded to an online community claiming that someone actually made 14 million won in profits from scalped tickets at Yong-Amax using macros.

[Choi Min-hee / National Assembly Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee Member (Democratic Party): We can no longer leave unattended a situation where audience members cannot even enter the ticketing page and are forced to buy tickets at a premium.]

CGV stated that bulk purchases do not necessarily always lead to scalping, but added that it will continue to strengthen security systems against abnormal ticketing.

(Filmed by Shin Dong-hwan and Yang Ji-hoon | Video Edited by Yu Mira | Designed by Kim Han-gil | Data provided by the office of lawmaker Choi Min-hee of the Democratic Party)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.