According to Heraldcorp, Netflix, the leading unit in increasing the cost of producing Korean dramas, has finally decided to reduce the actor's salary.
According to industry sources, Netflix has set the maximum salary for actors at 400 million won/episode in Korean dramas. This is not yet a low salary, but it is considered a move to curb the recent surge in remuneration of actors.
An industry insider said: "There are differences depending on the work, but Netflix is aiming to reduce production costs and also reduce actor salaries. In fact, they are setting a limit on the fee and signing a contract with a lower amount than initially expected."
A Netflix official shared: "Game is an issue that producers and directors have to worry about. Although K- Content (Korean content) is very successful and loved globally, if production costs continue to increase, it will be counterproductive.
A few years ago, the average production cost of a Korean drama was 300-400 million won/episode. With Netflix entering the Korean market, the production cost of billions of won per episode has become popular.
Of which, most of the cost is the actor's remuneration. When famous actors switch to acting through online (OTT) services, their remuneration skyrockets.
Netflixs When Life Is for You aired earlier this year, starring IU and Park Bo Gum, with a production budget of 60 billion won.
Squid Game 3 starring Lee Jung Jae and Lee Byung Hun, scheduled to be released at the end of June, is said to have cost 100 billion won to produce. In particular, the actor's salary is very high.
As film funding has increased, Korean production companies have lamented, If it had just stopped like this, everything would have collapsed.
Due to cost problems, the number of Korean dramas produced has been declining. In 2022, there will be 141 films released. In 2023, the number of films will decrease to 123. Last year, there were about 100 works and in 2025, it is forecasted that there will be only 80 films/year.
Meanwhile, the remuneration of top Korean actors when acting in Netflix's films is said to be many times higher than that of Japanese actors.
The main actor in a Japanese TV series on Netflix received 10 million yen per episode, but compared to Korean actors, the difference was at least 3-4 times, and at most 10 times.
The basic production cost for a Korean episode has reached 2 billion won/episode, while in Japan, just 1 billion won is enough.
An industry insider shared: "The skyrocketing remuneration of top actors is causing serious problems. The actual production cost due to the Hallyu wave on OTT has far exceeded the reasonable production cost, due to the high appearance fee of famous actors".
According to MK, although Netflix has limited the Korean actor's salary to 400 million won/episode, the public still reacted to this news.
They left many opinions such as: "Instead of only using actors who are guaranteed to be successful, they should explore new talents"; "Because television dramas are a comprehensive art form, they should reduce the salaries of the main actors and increase the salaries of employees"...
