Era of 10 Billion Won Actor Fees in South Korean Film Industry

On June 16th, industry sources reported that actor Song Kang-ho will be receiving a per-episode fee of 700 million won for his role in Disney+’s drama “Uncle Samsik”. Originally planned as a 10-episode series, he was set to earn a total of 7 billion won. However, with the series being extended to 16 episodes, it is now estimated that he has received over 10 billion won in total.

It has been reported that Lee Jung-jae, the lead actor in Netflix’s “Squid Game Season 2,”will receive a per-episode fee of 1 billion won. This makes him the first actor in a Korean drama to be paid such a high amount, as the production costs for the show have reached 100 billion won. In USD, his fee amounts to approximately 1 million, or 1.3 billion won, per episode.

This marks the highest salary ever received by a Korean actor, especially with “Squid Game”being a 13-episode series planned through Season 3. It is estimated that Lee Jung-jae’s total earnings for the show will amount to 13 million USD (17.134 billion won).

Due to the exorbitant fees demanded by actors, it is inevitable that the expenses for producing content will also rise. Industry experts disclose that securing a renowned actor for the lead role in a drama typically entails a fee of 300~400 million won per episode, resulting in a production budget of at least 1 billion won per episode.

According to reports, the total cost for the 16 episodes of the tvN drama “Queen of Tears”was 56 billion won, averaging to 3.5 billion won per episode. While it was initially reported that lead actor Kim Soo-hyun received 800 million won per episode, his team has refuted this claim, stating that it is the highest fee ever paid for a domestic drama.

Subsequently, it was revealed that Kim Soo-hyun had accepted a payment of 5 billion won, which equates to more than 300 million won per episode. This amounted to approximately one-tenth of the total production cost.

Despite being a major contributor to production costs, the increasing actor fees have raised concerns about the long-term viability of the drama market. This has resulted in a significant decrease in drama production, leading to the cancellation of Wednesday-Thursday dramas and a decrease in the number of Monday-Tuesday dramas. In 2022, a total of 141 dramas were broadcast on domestic channels, but this number dropped to 123 last year, and is projected to further decline to approximately 100 this year, representing a decrease of 30~40%.