Baek Byung-yeul is a journalist at The Korea Times focused on cultural content, including films and cultural events in South Korea. You can contact him at baekby@koreatimes.co.kr to share your insights.
Hits and misses: Webtoon adaptations dominate, but execution decides success
Actor Choi Yu-ri in a scene from the 2025 movie "My Daughter Is a Zombie"/ Courtesy of NEW
By Baek Byung-yeul
Webtoons have become the entertainment industry’s most reliable source of stories in Korea in recent years, supplying a steady stream of pre-tested narratives as studios increasingly turn to digital comics to reduce risk.
Yet as webtoon-based projects continue to flood cinema and streaming platforms, a clear divide has emerged between adaptations that cleverly reinterpret their source material and big-budget failures, revealing how fragile that formula can be.
Breakout success of ‘Zombie Daughter’
The clearest sign of a breakthrough in 2025 came from Naver Webtoon’s video production subsidiary Studio N. The film "My Daughter is a Zombie,” based on the popular 2018 webtoon by Lee Yun-chang, emerged as the year's most surprising box office hit.
With over 5.6 million viewers, the film became the most-watched Korean release of 2025, a year that was otherwise short on blockbuster hits, proving that a good remake can appeal to everyone, not just original fans. The movie succeeded because it perfectly mixed dark humor with a touching story about a father’s love.
Netflix also saw great success by staying loyal to the original webtoons.
"The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call" quickly became a global sensation on Netflix in early 2025. Starring Ju Ji-hoon, the series is based on the web novel "Trauma Center: Golden Hour" by Hansanleega, which was serialized into a Naver Webtoon in 2019.
The series was lauded for its high-octane medical realism, eventually winning the Best Drama and the Best Actor awards at the Blue Dragon Series Awards.
Actor Park Ji-hoon in a scene from Netflix series “Weak Hero Class 2” / Courtesy of Netflix
Similarly, the Netflix series "Weak Hero Class 2" solidified the "Weak Hero" franchise as a global intellectual property (IP), entering the Top 10 lists in over 60 countries. The webtoon-based series was praised for its sleek action and for deepening the psychological stakes of the original high school noir.
On traditional television, SBS’ "Taxi Driver" Season 3 also stayed a huge hit, proving that webtoon-based shows can maintain their popularity even after several seasons.
When huge budgets aren’t enough
However, the high-risk side of the IP business was also exposed, showing that big budgets and well-known source material are no guarantee of success. The most notable disappointment was the live-action film "Omniscient Reader.”
Despite a staggering production budget of over 30 billion won ($21.7 million) and an A-list cast, the film struggled to resonate with general audiences. While it opened at No. 1, it stalled at approximately 1 million admissions, far below its 6 million break-even point.
Fans of the original web novel by the writing duo singNsong and critics noted that trying to fit such a massive, complex world into a two-hour movie was a mistake. The result was a plot that confused new viewers but felt too shallow for loyal fans, leaving it uncertain if any more movies in the series will ever be made.
Netflix’s action-noir "Mercy for None,” starring actor So Ji-sub, also faced a polarized reception. While its global viewership numbers were initially high, the series faced a backlash from loyal fans who complained that the show failed to capture the dark and rough feeling of the original webtoon, choosing instead to follow the same old action movie patterns.
Actor Roh Jeong-eui in a scene from Channel A series “The Witch” / Courtesy of Channel A
Channel A’s "The Witch," based on popular cartoonist Kang Full’s 2013 webtoon, failed to spark attention despite a promising start. The drama peaked at a 3.1 percent viewership rating, with audiences noting that its slow-burn narrative felt dated compared to the high-speed storytelling of recent Korean dramas.
The ultimate takeaway for producers is that while a popular webtoon offers a strong foundation, true success lies in the ability to translate that vision into a compelling cinematic experience. As the market becomes more crowded, simply owning a famous title is no longer enough to guarantee a hit in the competitive world of K-content.
Studio N CEO Kwon Mi-kyung previously said the success of such projects "proves the power of original stories and the importance of finding the right visual grammar to translate webtoon imagination into cinematic reality."