Mr. Queen, co-produced by Studioplex in 2020 (Courtesy of tvN)
K-pop sensation Blackpink’s label YG Entertainment Inc. is slated to sell 60% of its drama production subsidiary Studioplex later this year, the South Korean entertainment agency said on Tuesday.
YG holds a 99.86% in the drama producer, which the K-pop label established in 2017 to diversify its revenue streams that were heavily concentrated on music businesses.
The entertainment agency’s holding in Studioplex will decline to 39.86% if it succeeds in selling the controlling stake to a buyer, which is expected to be a content creator, according to industry insiders.
YG said on May 7. that it continues its efforts to increase profitability through a healthy and competitive business structure focused on the entertainment agency’s core business. The deal will secure Studioplex’s financial soundness by improving the unit’s (content) production environment, YG added.
The K-pop agency is understood to have decided selling the subsidiary as the drama producer’s earnings have deteriorated amid a series of controversies over historical distortion, posting a nearly 800% debt-to-equity ratio as the end of 2023, sources said.
Studioplex logged 800 million won ($588,235) in revenue and 16.3 million won in a net loss last year. The earnings compared with 16.6 billion won in revenue and 2.1 billion won in net loss in 2021.
Snowdrop, co-produced by Studioplex in 2021 (Courtesy of JTBC)
COMPLAINTS OF HISTORICAL DISTORTION
YG aimed to make Studioplex a leader of Korean content production, hiring drama director Park Hong-kyun who oversaw Korea’s popular TV series such as Queen Seondeok in 2009 and The Greatest Love in 2011.
Studioplex has co-produced fiction drama series with historical backgrounds such as Mr. Queen, Joseon Exorcist and Snowdrop and romantic series including Love Alert.
But some of its drama series have sparked Korean watchers’ criticism over the reflection of historical facts.
Mr. Queen, released in 2020, raised controversy over a line in the film that demeaned the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, a UNESCO World Heritage and a set of records that cover history from 1392 to 1863. The drama production team officially apologized after the criticism, saying that it didn’t intend to negatively express the Korean national treasure.
Joseon Exorcist, written by Mr. Queen’s writer Park Kye-ok and released in 2021, was canceled after only two episodes were released amid viewers’ boycott over the film’s historical settings. The cancellation impacted Studioplex as it invested more than 32 billion won in the drama production.
A 2021 drama Snowdrop, which starred Blackpink member Jisoo and popular actor Jung Hae-in, raised criticism over its historical background of Korea’s democracy movement in the 1980s. All these happenings hurt the sponsorships and reputation of the drama production company.
By Ik-Hwan Kim
lovepen@hankyung.com
Jihyun Kim edited this article.
