In 1994, a seemingly "harmless" comparison had a powerful impact on the unimaginable, shifting the entire Korean economy. When Koreans calculated the total revenue of the movie "Jurassic Park", they realized that this number was even higher than the sales of 1.5 million Hyundai cars.
The success of a film is not only calculated by revenue, but is also multiplied many times, when movies and music also bring emotions, stories, and images of the nation reaching out to the world. From the formula learned from the US, Koreans research and invest to have their own path for an ambitious cultural industry strategy.
American formula: Market success creates national brand
The US, with a developed commodity economy, soon acquired a vibrant market. The success of the US cultural industry stems from the model: "Market ahead, value behind".
Hollywood holds large private economic groups and relies entirely on the development of the private market. From the 1910s-1930s, when the world was still hovering around in fairs, Hollywood formed a luxury industry, based on the first private companies.
In 1912, Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures... the first film studios were born with fierce business models, promoting competitiveness and optimizing profits.
The ecosystem is formed quickly when film studios compete in the market, they build studios, exclusive artists, build cinema systems... If audiences want to watch films produced by Paramount, they will have to go to Paramount cinemas.
The chain of amusement parks and tours is also designed for Universal to take advantage of exploiting movies and characters from the screen. Successful in movies, Universal invests in telecommunications infrastructure and technology to become a powerhouse in Hollywood.
Universal itself produced the "Jurassic Park" series with the application of advanced science and technology, creating a revolution in visual effects (CGI) in 1994. The film achieved "huge" revenue, compared to the sales of 1.5 million Hyundai cars, which was a shock that "awakened" the whole of Korea.
Hollywood is a market for alliances of giant economic ecosystems, where a film is born as a strategy of the financial problem, methodical communication, combining leading world science and technology.
Korean formula: National brand creates economy
If Hollywood and the US cultural industry originated from private companies, growing stronger thanks to private corporations, then with Korea - this is a methodical strategy from the beginning of the government.
As soon as it recognized the economic strength of music and cinema, the Korean government had a long-term investment strategy to develop the cultural industry in stages. The government directly spends budget, trains human resources, establishes specialized agencies, and promotes international advertising for the Korean trend through diplomacy...
The South Korean government calls on economic groups and businesses to participate in the cultural industry with many investment and tax incentives...
In 1992, the movie "Marriage Story" marked the first time a large Korean corporation (Samsung) invested in film. After that, businesses like Daewoo and Hyundai followed suit to provide capital for filmmakers.
Currently, Korea already has large corporations in the field of culture and entertainment with a multinational ecosystem such as CJ, Lotte... They both provide capital, invest, produce to distribute, own chains of cinemas across countries... for cinema.
If Hollywood and the US cultural industry value profits, Korea has created a more creative formula, they value nationalism and cultural identity when bringing movies and music to the world.
American cinema prefers world-dominating thinking, creating superheroes to save the world, Korean cinema aims for seductive, enchanting stories that melt the world.
Thanks to the cultural industry and master storytelling, Korea has turned movies and music into enchanting sales channels...
