{"id":340621,"date":"2025-12-29T07:58:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T07:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/340621\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T07:58:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T07:58:10","slug":"almost-collapsed-behind-the-korean-film-crisis-and-why-k-pop-isnt-immune-south-korea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/340621\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Almost collapsed\u2019: behind the Korean film crisis and why K-pop isn\u2019t immune | South Korea"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Korea\u2019s entertainment dominance appears unshakeable. From BTS conquering global charts to Parasite sweeping the Oscars<\/a> in 2020 and Korean dramas topping Netflix<\/a>, Korean popular culture has never been more visible. Exports driven by the country\u2019s arts hit a record<\/a> $15.18bn (\u00a311bn) in 2024, cementing the country\u2019s reputation as a cultural superpower.<\/p>\n

But inside South Korea, the two industries that helped build the Korean Wave \u2013 cinema and K-pop<\/a> \u2013 are now experiencing fundamental transformations, with their survival strategies potentially undermining the creative foundations of their success.<\/p>\n

The decline in cinema is the most dramatic. Admissions \u2013 for Korean and international films \u2013 have fallen<\/a> 45% since 2019, from about 226 million to 123 million, while box office revenue has dropped from $1.3bn to $812m.<\/p>\n

With investment slowing sharply, Korean distributors that once released more than 40 locally produced films a year are expected to put out about only 20 in 2025, and warn that 2026 could be \u201ceven more serious\u201d as the pandemic-era backlog runs out<\/a> and new productions are not coming fast enough.<\/p>\n

Kim Han-min, director of the Yi Sun-sin trilogy, delivered the bluntest warning when he told lawmakers<\/a> last year that the sector had \u201calmost collapsed\u201d.<\/p>\n

A scene from Bong Joon-ho\u2019s Oscar award-winning film Parasite. Photograph: BFA\/Alamy<\/p>\n

Jason Bechervaise, a professor of Korean film at Hanyang University, sees not a short-term slump but a structural weakening. \u201cYears of tightening margins and rising costs have thinned out the mid-budget productions where new directors once developed and established film-makers experimented,\u201d he says. \u201cMuch of the talent pipeline is now moving toward streaming platforms, where investment is steadier and production schedules more predictable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The theatrical \u201choldback window\u201d \u2013 the period between a cinema release and a film\u2019s arrival on streaming \u2013 has also shortened to just a few weeks for many titles, leaving audiences with little reason to buy a ticket. The strain has already triggered historic consolidation, with the operators of the Lotte Cinema and Megabox chains planning to merge<\/a> their 1,682 screens.<\/p>\n

Cinemas are investing heavily<\/a> in premium formats such as Imax and Dolby, but without a reliable flow of domestic films, industry insiders say such upgrades cannot deliver a sustained recovery.<\/p>\n

K-pop\u2019s reckoning<\/p>\n

Cinema is not the only pillar under strain. K-pop, long considered one of South Korea\u2019s strongest cultural exports, is also entering a period of uncertainty.<\/p>\n

Physical album sales fell<\/a> 19.5% in 2024 \u2013 the first decline in a decade \u2013 dropping from 115.2m units to 92.7m, with the drop projected<\/a> to continue by the end of 2025. This includes international releases, but few make major inroads into the Korean charts.<\/p>\n

Yet major agencies have found their salvation elsewhere, with concert revenues now surging past traditional album sales as they pivot to global touring<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Areum Jeong, a professor of Korean studies at Arizona State University, says companies have increasingly prioritised their most dedicated fans<\/a>. \u201cK-pop companies began catering mainly to the core fandom, and kind of forwent the idea of being widely known to the public,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen companies cater to the core fandom\u2019s needs, the core fandom will spend and support.\u201d<\/p>\n

This narrow focus, she argues, has influenced how idols are recruited, trained and marketed, and the superfan-centred model is now being copied by industries outside Korea. Yet questions remain about whether this approach can produce the kind of breakthrough global phenomena that defined K-pop\u2019s golden era, such as BTS<\/a> or Blackpink.<\/p>\n

BTS performing in Busan, South Korea, in October 2022. Photograph: Bighit Music\/EPA<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, smaller agencies, once vital for experimentation and diversity, have struggled<\/a> to survive, squeezed by rising production costs and a shrinking share of fan spending.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the global success of Korean cultural ideas no longer guarantees that Korean companies will be the ones profiting.<\/p>\n

Netflix\u2019s animated hit KPop Demon Hunters<\/a> became the platform\u2019s most-watched animated film<\/a>. The film was co-directed by the Korean-Canadian Maggie Kang, and included several Korean\/Korean-American voice actors, but was an American production based on Korean aesthetics.<\/p>\n

Jeong describes it as a \u201cde-territorialised, hybrid idea of K-pop<\/a> [rather] than an authentic K-pop product\u201d, suggesting that Korean cultural concepts have become portable enough to be reproduced internationally without Korean participation. Similar groups trained in Korean methods are now emerging in Japan and south-east Asia, creating direct competition.<\/p>\n

Yet she says audiences still seek real-world encounters<\/a> with Korean culture. After the film\u2019s release, museums<\/a>, food brands<\/a> and cosmetics companies<\/a> experienced renewed interest in items featured onscreen.<\/p>\n

Bechervaise notes how creative dynamics have shifted. As domestic productions became more formulaic, American studios and Korean-diaspora creators began drawing on Korean cultural elements in works such as Minari, Beef and Demon Hunters. \u201cKorea had beaten Hollywood at its own game,\u201d he says, \u201cbut now it\u2019s as though Hollywood\u2019s beating Korea at its own game.\u201d<\/p>\n

The singing voices of HUNTR\/X from KPop Demon Hunters performing onstage in Los Angeles, California, in December. Photograph: Kevin Winter\/Getty Images for iHeartRadio<\/p>\n

The government has responded<\/a> with a sweeping five-year, 51.4tn won (\u00a326bn) cultural investment plan, aimed at expanding South Korea\u2019s global cultural footprint and strengthening broader cultural industries, from content exports to arts training, tourism and sports.<\/p>\n

President Lee Jae Myung has also appointed the JYP Entertainment founder and K-pop mogul Park Jin-young to co-chair a new presidential cultural committee<\/a> to promote the spread of Korean pop culture internationally.<\/p>\n

Major agencies such as HYBE and SM Entertainment are opening new subsidiaries in south-east Asia<\/a>, India<\/a> and China<\/a>. But critics say the focus on overseas expansion risks overlooking the infrastructure at home that once powered South Korea\u2019s cultural ascent and eroding the cultural authenticity that originally attracted international audiences.<\/p>\n

Jeong believes the industries will continue to earn money but warns that financial success alone cannot guarantee creative renewal. \u201cThe Korean entertainment industry will continue to profit this way,\u201d she says, \u201cbut I think it will be difficult to create something like KPop Demon Hunters<\/a> that has won over so many people worldwide.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Korea\u2019s entertainment dominance appears unshakeable. From BTS conquering global charts to Parasite sweeping the Oscars in 2020…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,128,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-340621","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}