Kim Soo-hyun – the “Young and Rich” actor who earned 50 billion won in advertising per year
“His estimated advertising revenue per year alone is already 50 billion won” – “Secret Newsroom” recently revealed actor Kim Soo-hyun’s wealth.
The recent broadcast of IHQ entertainment program “Secret Newsroom”, which aired on the morning of January 8th, released stories about Kim Soo-hyun.
The most highlighted keywords about Kim Soo-hyun were “Young & Rich”, “Seongsu-dong Landmark Apartment”, and “500 million won per episode”. In fact, Kim Soo-hyun lived in a residential complex, which was one of the most famous landmarks in Seongsu-dong, Seongdong-gu, Seoul. This apartment has a unique view of the Seoul Forest, a special attraction of Seoul. In addition, the Han River can be seen from this building at a glance.
Even the elevators are covered with leather and fully decorated and prepared for VVIPs. As a result, this is the neighborhood where singer Insooni and SM Entertainment CEO Lee Soo-man live. In addition, Big Bang G-Dragon used to live in this apartment in the past.
The price of apartments in this area was said to not be in the range that normal people could afford. In 2013, Kim Soo-hyun purchased an apartment for 4.02 billion won. He bought another one in the same building that cost 3.02 billion won in 2014. The price of these apartments in the current market is known to have reached the highest peak of 9.5 billion won, making everyone shocked.
In the past, Kim Soo-hyun once said that he had lived with his family for a long time in a monthly rented house for 20 years then moved to a house on deposit for the first time. As a result, he touched everyone by saying that he had achieved his desire to let his mother live in a better house.
Not only the house, but also Kim Soo-hyun’s advertising revenue was top-notch. Immediately after appearing in ‘Moon Embracing the Sun’, he filmed 17 commercials, earning 8 billion won in advertising revenue. After ‘My Love from the Star’, he earned 20 billion won in revenue from advertisements in China alone, earning him the nickname ‘The 20 Billion Man’. As a result, Kim Soo-hyun raised 50 billion won in annual advertising revenue estimates alone, ranking No. 1 in celebrity revenue by Forbes Korea at the time.
Recently, Kim Soo-hyun appeared in Coupang Play’s original drama ‘One Ordinary Day‘ and grossed 500 million won per episode. Even though it’s the sum of the performance fee, PPL, and overseas publishing rights, it still makes up a significant portion as the production cost of ‘One Ordinary Day’ is 1.25 billion won per episode.
It was also the highest paid for a male actor in Korea. Previously, actor Lee Byung-hun received 150 million won per episode for ‘Mr. Sunshine‘ and Hyun Bin received 170 million won per episode for ‘Crash Landing on You‘. This is because Kim Soo-hyun received more money than the two of them combined as an appearance fee per episode.
However, as actors’ performance fees have increased, some pointed out that it would result in overseas investments and PPL excessively being required for production with limited cost, which hinders the completeness of the work, or the gap between how actors and actresses get paid getting widened.
