Wanna One members to pocket up to $1.9m after disbandment

Wanna One performs at the "KSTAR Korea Music Festival" at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul's Guro-gu District in August this year. Korea Times file

By Ko Dong-hwan

After its huge success in Korea and fueling K-pop interest across the world, “project” boy band Wanna One is nearing its scheduled disbandment in January when the members will part and join separate agencies. Each of the 11 members from a TV audition show is expected to leave rich and famous.

The band of singer aspirants-turned-winning artists from “Project 101: Season 2” on Mnet debuted in June 2017. If the group cruises until next month's concert without any change of plan, the stars will have generated nearly 80 billion won ($71 million) revenue since debut, posting 44 billion won net profit, according to online news outlet Sports Seoul.

The band's financial pie gets distributed top-down, from its current agencies to each member's original agency.

Kang Daniel, center, as Wanna One performs at this year's "KSTAR Korea Music Festival." Korea Times file

CJ ENM, distributor of Wanna One's albums offline and the band's co-agency, gets 25 percent. Swing Entertainment, another co-agency whose largest shareholder is CJ ENM, gets the same.

The rest is split among group members and their mother agencies that trained and managed them before they joined the audition challenge. Most members are expected to pocket around 1 billion won after disbandment.

Kang Daniel from MMO Entertainment, the “center” of the band who enjoyed the most fame so far, is expected to rake in much more than the anticipated dividend. Having signed six commercial contracts since last year and becoming one of the nation's most-sought advertising celebrities, the megastar, 22, has already bagged an opulent sum of contract money.

He took 300 million won for a three month-exposure advertisement and 1 billion for a whole year, according to the report.

Kim Jae-hwan, along with other Wanna One members, walks the red carpet ahead of the opening of "2018 MBC Plus X Genie Music Awards" at Incheon Namdong Gymnasium in November this year. Korea Times file

Kim Jae-hwan, the only band member who started the Wanna One project without an agency but as an individual, is looking to earn at least 2.2 billion won by tenure's end. He later signed with Stone Music Entertainment.

Wanna One's contract ends on Dec. 31, 2018, but its official schedule continues until its exclusive concert in January. They will also gain extra income until the end of next year, during which profit from online music sources, offline albums and merchandise will be rolling in.

Wanna One is a rare success as an audition-born K-pop band. It has held 24 local and international concerts, exclusive and joint, starting with the “Produce 101 Season 2 Finale Concert” at Olympic Park on July 1-2, 2017, in Jamsil-dong, Songpa-gu District in Seoul.

Stage gigs included a months-long world tour “One: The World” starting in Dallas in June and ending in Manila in September 2018.