Buying 286 Tickets for 'The Odyssey' Alone... Inside the Reality of 'Macros'

[Anchor]

The film 'The Odyssey' surpassed 10 million moviegoers in just 33 days since its release. Competition for IMAX theater reservations, in particular, was fierce. Every time tickets went on sale, they sold out instantly—and it has been confirmed that a single person purchased nearly 300 tickets for 'The Odyssey'.

Reporter Dong Eunyeong has the story.

[Reporter]

"If it's not an IMAX theater, you haven't truly seen 'The Odyssey'."

As the first movie in cinematic history to be shot entirely with IMAX-dedicated film cameras, a ticketing craze for IMAX theaters broke out simultaneously with the release of 'The Odyssey'.

In the case of the Yongsan IMAX theater in Seoul, nicknamed "Yong-a-max," an alert service even appeared to notify people of the exact time the reservation window opens.

[Park Minyoung and Han Ji min / Gwanak-gu, Seoul: Once reservations start opening up, an alarm comes from there, and as soon as the alarm pops up first, I think I managed to grab them then. I think it took 3, 4 weeks (to successfully book one).]

Transactions took place on secondhand trading platforms at prices exceeding five times the original value, and SBS reporting confirmed that scalpers bought them in bulk using macros, which are automated programs that repeatedly input data.

Over the month or so following its release, a single account booked a whopping 286 tickets—an amount equivalent to the total number of seats in a regular screening room.

Combining the seats purchased by the top 5 accounts exceeds 1,100 seats. Furthermore, during July and August, when blockbuster films like 'HOPE', 'Spider-Man', and 'The Odyssey' were screened, CGV's blocked attempts at macro-suspected bookings reached a staggering 230 million cases.

During the same period, the reservation cancellation rate for the Yongsan IMAX theater exceeded 50%, leading to speculations that scalpers purchased them in bulk and canceled them when they failed to sell.

[Zhang Junxi, Lee Hyunjin, and Park Kyung / Dongjak-gu, Seoul: You almost couldn't secure any. It felt like competing against a machine. It seems scalpers buy them up and then cancel right before the movie starts.]

Controversy also arose when a post appeared on an online community claiming that someone actually used macros to make 14 million won in profits from scalped tickets for Yong-a-max.

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

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

(Photo: Yonhap News)
(Reported by Shin Dong-hwan and Yang Ji-hoon | Video by Yu Mira | Graphics by Kim Hangil | Photo courtesy of the office of Representative Choi Minhee of the Democratic Party)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.