{"id":3500,"date":"2026-05-21T20:57:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T20:57:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/?p=3500"},"modified":"2026-05-21T20:57:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T20:57:24","slug":"korean-content-cj-enm-hybe-extraordinary-attorney-woo-1236756341","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/?p=3500","title":{"rendered":"Korean Content Leaders Take Stock of Growth, Look to Future"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\n\tThe world of Korean entertainment has come a long way since \u201cGangnum Style\u201d set dancers galloping around the world nearly 15 years ago.<\/p>\n

\n\tKorean content industry leaders on both sides of the Pacific gathered earlier this month at the London West Hollywood to take stock of the country\u2019s rapid progress as an exporter of music, movies, TV shows, short-form material and other digital content that penetrating in traditional Hollywood. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe K-Entertainment Industry Summit was presented by CJ ENM<\/a>, one of the handful of South Korean conglomerates that have forged a robust eco-system for the production and distribution of K-content. It\u2019s part of a rising tide of influence from the Asian diaspora that is driving innovation across media, from vertical dramas to live-stream e-commerce to the webtoon graphic novel boom.<\/p>\n

\n\tA case in point cited during the half-day summit was the boffo performance over the past year of Netflix\u2019s \u201cKpop Demon Hunters<\/a>,\u201d an anime movie rooted in Korean folklore.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cLet\u2019s get rid of the notion that it\u2019s an outlier and just look at the brass tacks of what it is. It\u2019s a great piece of storytelling with innovative animation,\u201d said James Shin, president of HYBE America Studios. \u201cThey had the aspirations of the biggest musicals. How do we achieve that while also adhering to this whole idea of authenticity? It\u2019s those little details. It\u2019s the beauty and specificity\u201d that made \u201cKpop Demon Hunters\u201d stand apart.<\/p>\n

\n\tHyonbae Park, CEO of CJ ENM America, opened the invitation-only May 14 event with the observation that in his view, Year One for the K-content boom was 2012, when Psy electrified dance floors around the world with the smash hit \u201cGangnam Style.\u201d That hit caught a wave on YouTube that let the world know how much art, media and culture was exploding in Korea.<\/p>\n

\n\tSince 2012, Korean-language film \u201cParasite\u201d took the Oscar for best picture and drama series \u201cSquid Game\u201d set records for Netflix. 2012 was also the first year CJ ENM hosted its KCON fan festival in Los Angeles, which has expanded to events in New York, Japan, Paris and Mexico City in recent years.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen I first came to the United States in 1990, I lived in a small town in New Jersey. I was one of the very few Asians there. People came to me and asked, \u2018Where are you from?\u2019 And I would say \u2018Korea,\u2019 and many people [would] say, \u2018Korea, is that a country?\u2019\u2026 Fast forward to 2026, no one asks what Korea is anymore,\u201d Hyonbae Park said. \u201cToday, Korean entertainment is everywhere, and everybody loves it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s not to say that hurdles and cultural barriers don\u2019t exist. K-pop as a genre has experienced inevitable ebbs after a decade-long boom.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think people who don\u2019t know what K-pop is, they think it\u2019s a very young niche. But if you look at its reach globally, and [how] it transcended across the globe, you can see that the age range is a bigger gap,\u201d said John Kim, VP of marketing and distribution for UMG\/Interscope Records. \u201cIt reaches young teens through the mid-40s and 50s. I grew up on K-pop, my son grows up on K-pop, so it\u2019s generational now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor brands, K-pop related opportunities can be exciting because it is perceived to be on the cutting-edge of global youth culture.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe looked at K-pop, and a particularly unique artist to bridge and connect us with a new generation with new values,\u201d said Michael Traynor, VP of Hennessy for Mo\u00ebt Hennessy USA, which has partnered with former K-pop idol Jackson Wang.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe saw extreme diversity, all different demographics, all different ages, and a fandom that again had bought in not just the experience, but they wanted more. So we delivered on that and created year after year different collaboration items that really spoke to Jackson and his fandom,\u201d Traynor said. \u201cEverything from special content to limited edition bottles, to even a song has allowed us to go much deeper with his audience than just a regular endorsement and shows the power that exists not only globally but here in the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTara Klee, director of global touring for AEG Presents, agreed that K-pop fans are trendsetters.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThey have a voice, and it\u2019s really powerful,\u201d she said. \u201cThere are a lot of opportunities with brands specifically and in sponsorships. K-pop fans are the dream for that, because they want to show up eight hours early and stand in line.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDanielle Kreinik, senior VP of television for Jerry Bruckheimer Television, said the strength of the fandom around K-pop stars is attractive to producers and platforms. Bruckheimer TV is producing an English-language adaptation of the hit K-drama \u201cExtraordinary Attorney Woo.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe would love to be able to attach a Korean star to something, especially somebody from the K-pop world. It\u2019s really exciting to see that fanbase, because that fan base [is] what you want to bring with you when you\u2019re bringing packages around,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\n\tSera Tabb, head of global television for Webtoon Productions, cautioned that K-content fandom is not monolithic. Western adaptations of Asian content need to understand the essence of the piece. Fortunately, with digital and social media, there\u2019s a 24\/7 feedback loop.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhat we noticed is that each individual piece of IP has its own culture, because there\u2019s a comment section on Webtoon. When you\u2019re scrolling through each episode, at the end, people are making comments. For us, as the adapters\u2026we can track in real time how people are responding to certain character moments, what engagement looks across the history of the comic, and that\u2019s very meaningful for us,\u201d Tabb said.<\/p>\n

\n\tJon Wax, executive VP of International Original Television for Disney Entertainment, cited Korea and Japan as big areas of focus for Disney\u2019s global content strategy. The Mouse is investing in pan-Asian content with the goal of building up regional strength in a competitive marketplace for streaming content. He pointed to the success of a uniquely K-content property \u201cBattle of Fates,\u201d a game show in which Korean psychics and Tarot card readers and the like compete to<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cCertainly, as a global streamer, if something tends to travel, that\u2019s attractive to us, even if that\u2019s not the goal for every [show],\u201d Wax said. \u201cJapan and Korea are two areas of focus for us. And that means even within the region, if not the world, we\u2019re hoping that content can travel a little more to Southeast Asia and places we hope to get with more originals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t(Pictured: <\/em>Variety\u2018s Cynthia Littleton, Disney\u2019s Jon Wax, Webtoon\u2019s Sera Tabb and Jerry Bruckheimer Television\u2019s Danielle Kreinik at the K-Entertainment Industry Summit in West Hollywood on May 14.)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The world of Korean entertainment has come a long way since \u201cGangnum Style\u201d set dancers galloping around the world nearly 15 years ago. Korean content industry leaders on both sides of the Pacific gathered earlier this month at the London West Hollywood to take stock of the country\u2019s rapid progress as an exporter of music,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2120,405,2121,3,167,62],"tags":[2118,2119],"class_list":["post-3500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cj-enm","category-entertainment","category-kpop-demon-hunters","category-lifestyle","category-netflix","category-news","tag-cj-enm","tag-kpop-demon-hunters"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}