Netflix’s “Squid Game 2” opens the era of K-dramas with a production cost of 100 billion won. The lead actor Lee Jung-jae reportedly receives 1 million dollars (about 1.3 billion won) per episode, the highest appearance fee for a Korean actor.
The global hit “Squid Game” is known to have raised the appearance fees significantly. The series with 2 seasons has a total of 13 episodes so Lee Jung-jae is estimated to earn up to 13 million dollars (about 17.134 billion won).
Appearing in a YouTube content video, Lee Jung-jae raised fans’ anticipation by revealing that “Squid Game Season 2” would premiere in winter and it would be more interesting than Season 1. Released in 2021, Season 1 led the K-content syndrome and created a craze around the world. Netflix is known to have gained a huge economic profit of 1 trillion won from this hit series.
If “Squid Game 2” is as successful as the previous season, Netflix’s investment of 100 billion won and high expectations will not go in vain. In addition to “Squid Game”, CEO of Netflix also announced that he would invest more in Korean content.
As Netflix begins to pour a large amount of money into Korean dramas, Korean OTT companies are facing a difficult situation. Nowadays, the average cost of making a drama, which used to be around 300-400 million won per episode, is now 2 billion won.
Netflix has raised the level of actors’ appearance fees, it has become more difficult for Korean drama producers to cover the production as appearance fees account for the largest portion of the total cost.
As a result, Korean OTTs such as TVING and Wavve are reducing their drama productions and turning to other fields such as sports and entertainment.
An official from a domestic OTT company said, “Korean companies won’t be able to produce dramas if they demand investments and appearance fees similar to Netflix’s offers”, adding “This could lead to lead to Netflix’s monopolization of the K-drama industry”.
