The Japanese Market for UK Films - BFI

5) Inflated Purchase Price of Korean Films
The purchase price of films exported to Japan, (MG / Minimum Guarantee)
started to increase around 2004. Prices peaked for Korean films marketed at
the Pusan International Film Festival and Japanese distribution companies paid
US $1 million to US $7 million for films starring popular actors.
Korean production companies began to worry about the size of their actors’
guarantees as large guarantees meant an increase in film production fees.
Japanese distribution companies continued to purchase Korean films and in a
sense supported them through the period of high average production budgets.
In 2004, Korea’s total export was US$50 million of which exports to Japan
accounted for US$40 million. In 2005, Koreas’ total export was US$75 million
of which Japan purchased US$60 million worth of this sum. Recently, a large
number of sales representatives from American and European film companies
have been asking how long the Korean film boom would last, at the expense of
the sale of their titles.
Table 1-8-5 Korean Films Export Revenues
Total Export
Revenue
Average
Revenue/per
film
52
Number of
Films
Exported
2000 $7,053,745 $185,625 38
2001 $11,249,573 +59% $110,289 59% 102 +168%
2002 $14,952,089 +33% $112,422 +2% 133 +30%
2003 $30,979,000 +107% $191,228 +70% 162 +22%
2004 $58,284,600 +88% $301,993 +58% 194 +20%
2005 $75,994,580 +30% $376,211 +25% 202 +4%
2006 $24,514,728 -70% $117,859 -70% 208 +3%
Export Revenues
Value of
exports to
Japan
Market Share
2000 $7,053,745 n/a n/a
2001 $11,249,573 +59% n/a n/a
2002 $14,952,089 +33% n/a n/a