“On the brink of collapse.” Crisis has knocked on the door of South Korean cinema (and the powerful K-pop is not immune)

Both South Korean entertainment industries have dominated the world in recent years, but the Korean Wave now faces fundamental transformation at home — and uncertainty about the future.

The supremacy of the South Korean entertainment industry seems unshakable.

Since the success of the boy band BTSwhich conquered global tops across the planet, until “Parasites“, which in 2020, going through korean dramas that lead audiences on Netflix, Korean popular culture never been so visible.

South Korean arts-driven exports reached a record high in 2024 16 billion eurosconsolidating the country’s reputation as a true cultural superpower.

But, internally, cinema and K-pop, the two industries that gave rise to the so-called Korean waveare now going through profound transformations, with survival strategies that may be undermining creative foundations of its success, says .

The decline of cinema is the most dramatic. The number of viewers for both Korean and international films fallen 45% since 2019from around 226 million to 123 million, while in the same period box office revenue passed from 1100 to 690 million euros.

With the investment slowing down sharplythe Korean distributors, who previously released more than 40 national films per yearplan to launch only about 20 in 2025and warn that 2026 could be “even more serious”, as the delay caused by the pandemic is running out and new productions do not arrive quickly enough.

The director Kim Han-minauthor of the epic trilogy, left the strongest warning when he stated to legislators, last year, that the sector had “almost collapsed”.

Jason Bechervaiseprofessor of Korean cinema at Hanyang University, sees not just a passing crisis, but a structural weakening. “Years of increasingly tight margins and rising costs emptied medium-budget productions, where new directors grew and established filmmakers experimented”, he explains.

“Much of the talent is now migrating for streaming platforms, where investment is more stable and production schedules more predictable”, says the professor to The Guardian.

In many titles, the “exclusivity window” in movie theatersthe period between the premiere on the big screen and the arrival of the film on streaming, was also shortened to just a few weeksleaving the public with little incentive to go to the cinema.

This pressure has already led to a historical consolidationwith the operators of the Lotte Cinema and Megabox chains planning to merge their 1,682 screens.

Movie theaters are investing heavily in premium formats such as Imax and Dolby, but, without a regular flow of national filmssector sources say that these improvements will not be able to guarantee a sustained recovery.

The moment of truth for K-pop

Cinema is not the only pillar under pressure. K-pop, for a long time one of the South Korea’s largest cultural exportsalso entered a phase of uncertainty.

Physical album sales fell 19.5% in 2024, the first decline in a decade, from 115 to 93 million unitswith the downward trend expected to continue until the end of 2025.

Still, the main agencies found salvation on other frontscom as concert recipes greatly surpassing album sales, thanks to the focus on global tours.

Areum Jeongprofessor of Korean studies at Arizona State University, says companies have given increasing priority to the most dedicated fans.

“K-pop companies began to focus almost exclusively on the hard core of followers, leaving aside the idea of ​​being widely known by the public,” he says. “When companies respond to the needs of their most loyal fans, these fans spend and support”.

This narrow focus influenced the entire way idols are recruitedtrained and promoted, with the model centered on superfans now being replicated in other industries outside Korea, Jeong tells The Guardian.

Still, doubts remain as to whether this approach will be able to generate global phenomena like those that marked the golden era of K-poplike the or the .

However, the small agencies, previously essential for experimentation and diversity, fight to survivepressured by the increase in production costs and the reduction in the share of spending by fans.

At the same time, the global success of Korean cultural ideas no longer guarantees that they are Korean companies profit from it.

The film, from Netflix, became the most viewed animation title always on the platform. Co-directed by Korean-Canadian Maggie Kangthe film featured various Korean and Korean-American voice actorsbut it was a American production based on Korean aesthetics.

Jeong describes it as a “de-territorialized and hybrid idea of ​​K-popmore than an authentic K-pop product”, suggesting that Korean cultural concepts have become portable enough to be played internationally without Korean participation.

Groups formed according to Korean methods are now beginning to appear in Japan and in Southeast Asia, creating direct competition to South Korean bands.

Still, says Jeong, audiences continue to want real experiences with Korean culture. After the film’s premiere, museums, food brands and cosmetic companies registered a renewed interest in the products displayed on the screen.

The creative dynamic has also changed. As domestic productions became more formulaic, American studios and creators from the Korean diaspora began to incorporate Korean cultural elements in works such as Minari, Beef and Demon Hunters. “Korea beat Hollywood at its own game”, he says, “but now it seems that It’s Hollywood beating Korea at its own game”.

The South Korean government responded with a ambitious investment plan cultural five-year period of 51.4 billion won (30 billion euros), aimed at expanding South Korea’s global cultural presence and strengthening broader sectors, from content exports to artistic training, tourism and sport.

The president Lee Jae Myung also named the founder of JYP Entertainment and K-pop mogul, Park Jin-youngas co-chair of a new presidential commission to promote the international dissemination of Korean pop culture.

Large agencies like HYBE and SM Entertainment are opening new subsidiaries in Southeast Asia, India and China.

But critics warn that the bet on international expansion may be neglect internal infrastructures that once fueled South Korea’s cultural rise and dilute authenticity culture that initially captivated an international audience.

Jeong believes that the two industries will continue to generate revenuebut warns that financial success, in itself, does not guarantee creative renewal.

“The Korean entertainment industry will continue to make profits,” he says, “but I think it will be difficult to create something like KPop Demon Hunterswhich has won over so many people around the world.”