To revive the Korean film production environment, the government, domestic production companies and major talent agencies are joining hands. They have signed an agreement to limit the skyrocketing fees of actors and are pursuing mutual coexistence.
On the 16th the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and KOFIC signed an "agreement to revitalize Korean film production" at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, in Jongno-gu, Seoul, meeting with major domestic management companies and film production organizations.
At the event, KOFIC, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST), BH Entertainment, Management SOOP, J.Wide-Company and other top domestic management companies, as well as the Korean Film Producers Association and the Producers Guild of Korea (PGK), signed the agreement. Accordingly, management companies and the production sector agreed to cooperate in setting lead and supporting actors' fees for projects supported by KOFIC's midbudget film production support program at "less than 10% of net production costs." The government, to restore the Korean film production ecosystem, had newly established last year a midbudget film production support program at the scale of 10 billion won and this year increased the support to 46 billion won while formulating active support measures.
They said the agreement ceremony would not be a one-off, and they will form a private-led consultative body involving management companies, production companies and distributors to continue discussions on ways to improve the production environment. However, this agreement is a voluntary pact without legal enforceability and represents a moral consensus for industry coexistence.
Concerns about rising prices for leading actors have been consistently raised. Rising appearance fees led to increased production costs, and coupled with the emergence of global streaming platforms with deep pockets such as Netflix, that burden grew larger. Industry reports noted that the production cost for the Netflix series When Life Gives You Tangerines was about 60 billion won and Squid Game was about 100 billion won. There were also numerous foreign media reports that Lee Jung-jae received $1 million per episode for Squid Game season 2 (about 1.3 billion won at the time). In response, Lee Jung-jae said "there is some misunderstanding" but also acknowledged "it is true that I received a lot."
Ultimately, massive production investments by global streaming platforms raised actors' market values further, and critics say that feeling the burden, the domestic content production market shrank. As concern grew, Netflix last year lowered the cap on actors' fees for Netflix series and films to 300 million won to correct excessively inflated fees. However, differences remain depending on the scale of a work, and exceptions can occur as fees may be flexible depending on the situation.
Netflix said in this regard, "It is more reasonable for compensation to reflect the actual time and contribution of creators and cast rather than simply the number of episodes," and added, "Netflix does not impose a uniform cap on fees and negotiates flexibly with partners considering the nature of the work, roles and production period."
Furthermore, with the government and major talent agencies taking the lead in lowering fees, this is expected to have a significant impact on the domestic film production environment. If the burden of production costs decreases, more works are likely to proceed to production. The government is also expanding the scale of support programs, which is expected to raise both the quality and quantity of content and further revitalize movie theaters.
Of course, questions remain about effectiveness given that the measure is not legally binding and is limited to the midbudget film support program for productions costing between 2 billion and 10 billion won. Moreover, with the need to reform drama compensation structures as urgent as for films, it is unclear how much this agreement will help solve practical problems.
It is encouraging that BH Entertainment, Management SOOP and J.Wide-Company, which joined this agreement, represent managements of actors who hold considerable influence in K-content, including Lee Byung-hun, Go Soo, Kim Go-eun, Park Bo-young, Park Hae-soo, Lee Jin-uk, Jung Ho-yeon, Han Ga-in, Han Ji-min, Han Hyojoo, Kong Hyojin, Jeon Do-yeon, Gong Yoo, Nam Ji-hyun, Kim Jae Wook, Seo Hyunjin, Suzy, Kim So-yeon, Kim Tae Woo, Bae Jong-ok, Lee Bo-young, Chun Ho-jin and Choo Young-Woo. KOFIC also plans to gradually expand the management companies participating in the agreement, and it is expected that a positive atmosphere will spread as actors voluntarily participate.
[photo] OSEN DB
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