Explainer | How much do K-dramas cost to make? Budgets keep growing, hastened by Netflix’s entry with Kingdom and Sweet Home
- K-dramas are hugely popular and, over the past 20 years, have become a lot more expensive to produce
- With star salaries, special effects and overseas shoots, each episode can cost more than US$2.6 million
How much do Korean drama series cost to make? It’s a simple question, but over time the answer has grown more complicated.
Two decades ago, when there were only three major broadcasters – KBS, SBS and MBC – in South Korea, the answer was 36.5 million Korean won per episode. Fast forward to today and by some metrics that figure has risen to 700 million won (US$615,000), a staggering leap, but if we include streaming services, the real average may be even higher.
In the year 2000, the Korean drama landscape was far less complicated than today. Variety was limited, with romantic dramas, family dramas and a few more expensive period dramas dominating schedules. Cast members’ salaries accounted for only 10 per cent of budgets, competition was relatively low, and productions were straightforward.
Today’s environment is vastly different. Stars command a higher percentage of overall production budgets, series have grown more ambitious, with foreign shoots and visual effects demands, and the wider range of distribution channels has increased both the variety of Korean shows and their international audience.
The average cost of an episode leapt to over 100 million won by 2008. By the time the cable networks tvN, JTBC and OCN had become major players in 2015, that figure had shot up to 400 million won.