Film production companies adapt to pandemic by flocking to TV series
A scene from Netflix series “Suriname” / Courtesy of Netflix
By Kwak Yeon-soo
A growing number of film production companies are expanding their specialties from just making films to creating drama series as a way to adapt to the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic over the past two years.
The aggregated revenues of the local film markets, which include domestic sales of movie tickets as well as online releases and exports, reached 1.02 trillion won ($822 million) last year, down 60 percent from the 2.5 trillion won during the pre-pandemic year of 2019, according to data from the Korean Film Council.
Aside from very big releases like “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” most films underperformed at the box office. As the film industry reeled from the impact of the pandemic, filmmakers crossed over to the small screen as a way of adjusting to changes in the market and in the ways audiences consume content.
Local film production company Siren Pictures paved the way for success by producing Netflix's “Squid Game.” “Suriname,” one of the most anticipated series of this year, is co-produced by Moonlight Film and Perfect Storm Film and directed by Yoon Jong-bin, best known for films “Nameless Gangster” and “Kundo.”
A scene from the web drama series, “Follow the Wind” / Courtesy of NEW
Next Entertainment World's (NEW) film division, Movie & New, recently announced its plan to diversify its business portfolio by producing and investing in intellectual property (IP)-based content for the web.
It will introduce BL (Boys' Love) web dramas, including “Blooming” (working title), a campus romance based on the popular webtoon, “Something is Wrong with Popularity.” With another leading film production company, Myung Film, it will co-produce “Follow the Wind” (working title), another BL romance series about a vocalist and the band's manager. Set to be released in the first half of this year, filmmaker So Joon-moon of the film “Everglow” (2021) is onboard to direct it.
The news comes as surprising because NEW had already established the drama-focused division, Studio & New, in 2016 to focus on dramas such as “Descendants of the Sun.”
Last September, “Parasite” production company Barunson E&A announced it will invest big in TV content by signing with Baek Mi-kyung, a scriptwriter who recently created a lot of buzz this year with tvN's “Mine.”
The pandemic and the rapid growth of streaming platforms have changed the way producers look at content. Film production company Doodoong Picture will produce director Lee Joon-ik's first drama series, “Beyond the Memory.”
“The line between film and TV keeps blurring. Thanks to streaming platforms that offer a wide array of content, various stylistic experiments have become possible in dramas,” television show critic Kong Hee-jung said.