Promotional material for Parasite Photo: Douban

At a time when people in South Korea are still basking in the success of Parasite at the Oscars, COVID-19 has soundlessly begun to spread throughout the country, destroying people's good mood and casting a gloomy shadow over the South Korean movie market.

On Monday, distributor CJ Entertainment announced that the black-and-white version of Parasite, which was scheduled for release in South Korea on Wednesday, would be delayed "as the COVID-19 threat level had been raised to severe."

Additionally, many other films, including Pixar's new animated film Onward and South Korean films Call and Innocence have also been delayed.

The series of film delays in South Korea is highly reminiscent of what took place in China right before Chinese New Year in January, when seven films set for the hugely profitable holiday period were delayed. 

According to reports, 82 people were infected with COVID-19 in South Korea on Thursday, but as of Monday evening, the number of confirmed cases soared rapidly to 833 infected and seven deaths. The fear of the deadly virus has thrown a damper on people's motivation to go to the cinema to take in a film.

According to a report from the Korean Film Council (KOFIC) released on Thursday, movie theaters in South Korea saw the lowest audience numbers in January since 2013. 

"A total of 16.84 million people went to theaters last month, down 7.1 percent from a year ago," the report said.

South Korea might suffer similar fate when it comes to its box office as the Chinese mainland, whose box office revenue over the past two months has been almost non-existent due to the mass shut down of theaters.

Like most Chinese, many South Korean have been choosing to stay at home to avoid infection, which might lead to a boost for streaming platforms in the country.

However, it is too early to tell if the South Korean film market will follow in the mainland's footsteps in bringing films originally meant for cinemas directly to streaming platforms. 

In China, the film Lost in Russia, which was originally scheduled to debut in theaters during the Chinese New Year Holiday, went straight to streaming sites where it could be watched for free, while film Enter The Fat Dragon aired on two of China's leading streaming platforms Tencent Video and iQIYI over the Chinese New Year due to concerns surrounding COVID-19.

South Korean movies that have little chance of earning a profit in theaters may turn to streaming platforms, but it movies looking to recuperate their huge budgets are likely to just wait until after the epidemic comes to an end to head to theaters.