According to cultural magazine Ize, there are currently speculations about the remuneration of actor Kim Soo Hyun in the drama Queen of Tears. It is difficult to confirm how much Kim Soo Hyun's salary is officially, due to the contract's confidentiality terms, but the numbers given such as "800 million won/tael", or "300 million won/tael" stunned many people.
" goes further, some opinions say that the high salaries of actors are causing inflation in the K-content market (Korean content) and destroying this industry. Is that the case?, Ize asked.
Class A stars receive "huge" salaries due to the law of supply and demand
Earlier this year, the Korea Association of Television Producers held a meeting to discuss the crisis in the television industry and how to address it.
At this event, some attendees expressed their dissatisfaction when the main actor currently receives billions of won for a work. In the end, because actors received "huge" salaries, production costs increased significantly, and production companies complained that they were unable to cover them.
However, according to IZE, this statement is half right, half wrong.
It is true that the actor's salary has increased. However, it is difficult to find a direct causative relationship with the difficulties of manufacturing companies.
This is because the decision to cast depends on the choice of the production companies. If you think the A-list stars are demanding unreasonable remuneration, you may not invite them to take the role. And if the producer chooses an actor who suits the budget that has been prepared for him, there will be no problems. But why complain so much?
This is in accordance with the law of supply and demand. Only a limited number of actors receive attention at any time. Today, they are Kim Soo Hyun, Park Bo Gum, Lee Min Ho, Cha Eun Woo...
If they appear, domestic TV stations can sell film rights to OTT platforms (streamline services) for large sums of money. Their yields are high, but manufacturers are likely to make more profits.
Although the K-content market is in decline, why are the salaries of some of the top stars still stable?
When the number of products decreases, investors will target actors and screenwriters with the highest probability of success. Because they are often chosen, there is no reason to reduce prices.
Recently, actors such as Lee Jang Woo, Kim Ji Seok, Oh Yoon Ah have all expressed concern about not having jobs.
Ize commented that it is unreasonable to think that A-list stars receive high salaries, causing a crisis in the K-content market.
Because there are many actors who want to work in this industry, but the production companies just want to use expensive actors at a cheaper cost.
Reasons for the K-content and K-drama markets facing difficulties
The sharp increase in production costs is not simply because of the main actor's salary.
With a 52-hour working week, employees' salaries have skyrocketed. In addition, as the cost of using equipment increases, a drama that cost 500 million won per episode 10 years ago may now have increased to 1 billion won.
During the pandemic, a new market called OTT has opened, allowing works to come to the public. But now, OTT is also facing a recession, due to users tightening spending.
In addition, with the popularity of Netflix and OTT platforms, the global demand for K-content has increased, leading to over-investment. As a result, a series of poor quality works were released, disappointing the public.
In the long term, this will be a challenging journey that needs to be overcome, to improve the quality of the K-content and K-drama (TV series) markets.
Radio and television companies are also gradually reducing the number of films. There are 141 works released through each channel and OTT in 2022. Last year, the number dropped to 123. And this year, it is expected to be only 100.
