The increasing remuneration of Korean TV actors has become a hot topic of discussion recently. Along with that, many people are curious about the salaries of screenwriters - the creators behind impressive scripts.
Famous director and screenwriter Jang Hang Jun frankly shared about this issue when appearing on the online entertainment show Have Breakfast Before You Go hosted by Jang Sung Kyu.
MC Jang Sung Kyu mentioned the skyrocketing salary of actors, questioning whether some actors are actually getting 700 million won/episode at the moment.
In response, the director said calmly: My wife is paid 2.5 billion won per episode.
His wife is Kim Eun Hee - one of the famous screenwriters of Korean television, the "mother" of many famous criminal and horror works such as "Three Days", "Signal", "Kingdom", "Revenant" ... Currently, Kim Eun Hee is writing the script for "Signal" part 2.
According to Ohmy news, Jang Hang Jun may not have as many famous works as his wife, but he is still a widely known face for showing his humorous personality and outstanding entertainment talent on variety shows.
Jang Hang Jun's announcement that his wife received billions of won per episode shocked the entire show crew. But then, the director quickly corrected that he was just joking.
This is also the opening of a discussion about how the remuneration of actors and screenwriters in the Korean drama industry has grown over the years.
Jang Hang Jun confirmed that the actor's remuneration has increased significantly. Actors salary has been increasing exponentially recently, he said.
According to the director, some A-list actors even demand salaries of up to 1 billion won per episode. He said that this trend started when global streaming platforms poured heavily into Korean content, typically Netflix.
Meanwhile, the salary of screenwriters increased relatively slowly. Some famous screenwriters earned 30-70 million won per episode, and only a few were paid more than 100 million won. Jang Hang Jun's saying "actors are more expensive than screenwriters" reflects the current situation in the industry.
However, if a film is successful, the screenwriter will receive a significant additional income from the copyright to re-air.
Jang Sung Kyu was curious to ask Jang Hang Jun whether the screenwriter really received the initial 50% of his remuneration when the film was released or not. The director frankly shared that the screenwriter could be paid an additional 100% of the initial remuneration if the film was successful enough.
I used to be a TV series screenwriter. One day, while walking, I saw a notice that my bank account had received hundreds of millions of won. I didn't expect to be paid so much money, Jang Hang Jun told the story of how he received a significant amount of royalties from the rebroadcast work.
Jang Hang Jun expressed her gratitude to veteran screenwriter Kim Soo Hyun, who fought with major broadcasters so that screenwriters could be paid for their rights to re-air.
