“Controversy over appearance fee of 1 billion won per episode” Actors famous for high ransom, who are they?
On Jan 25th, the Korea Drama Production Association revealed that they held a meeting on Jan 16th to discuss the crisis and solutions in the drama industry, aiming to alleviate the crisis situation.
Participants raised concerns about the overall production cost increase due to the rising fees of lead actors and the resulting decline in production quality. A representative from a broadcasting company stated, “For lead actors, it’s not about hundreds of millions anymore, it’s about 1 billion per episode. We need to find countermeasures.”
Meanwhile, attention is also shifting to lead actors’ ransom. In a November 2023 broadcast of Channel A’s “Haengboghan Achim”, the drama fees of male top actors were highlighted.
Actor Bae Yong-joon, who appeared in “The Legend” in 2007, received 250 million won per episode at the time. His agency clarified that this fee included profits directly received by the agency from participating in the drama, not just a simple appearance fee.
Song Joong-ki received around 8.8 billion won for his roles in tvN’s “Vincenzo” and JTBC’s “Reborn Rich”. It was reported that he received 200 million won per episode for the 20-episode “Vincenzo” and over 300 million won per episode for the 16-episode “Reborn Rich”.
The star with the highest per-episode fee is Kim Soo-hyun. He reportedly received 500 million won per episode for his appearance in Coupang Play’s 8-episode “One Ordinary Day” in 2021. Considering the production cost per episode of “One Ordinary Day” at 1.25 billion won, this fee accounts for a significant portion.
Source: Nate
