Popular films that once captivated the big screen are being reborn as television dramas. As drama productions based on box-office hits such as "Spellbound" and "Untold Scandal" have followed one after another, analysts say the K-content intellectual property (IP) market, once centered on webtoons, is now expanding into film.
The first to arrive is the 2011 film "Spellbound," which will reach viewers as a tvN drama on the 18th of this month. Based on the film of the same name that starred Son Ye-jin and Lee Min-ki, the work depicts a romance between Cheon Yeo-ri (Park Eun-bin), a chaebol heiress who can see ghosts, and Ma Gang-wook (Yang Se-jong), a prosecutor who is afraid of ghosts. While keeping the core premise of the film, it reworks the characters' occupations and relationships.
Netflix will release "Scandal" in the third quarter of this year. A remake of the 2003 film "Untold Scandal," the work deals with a dangerous wager over love set against a Joseon-era backdrop. Son Ye-jin, Ji Chang-wook, and Nana take the lead roles, reinterpreting the original's provocative atmosphere through the grammar of an online video service (OTT) series.
Earlier, the Disney+ original "Fragmented City," released last year, was also based on the film "Fabricated City." It rose to No. 1 in the Disney+ TV Show Worldwide category immediately after its release, in what has been assessed as proof of the potential for series expansion of film IP.
Until now, webtoons and web novels have been considered the most powerful source IP in the domestic drama market. As success stories such as "Moving," "The Trauma Code," and "Study Group" followed one after another, production companies have focused on securing webtoon IP with a proven fandom.
Recently, the value of film IP has been drawing renewed attention. Characters and narratives that could not be fully captured in theaters due to running-time constraints can now be expanded across eight to 10 episodes or more. In addition, as the main viewership of dramas has recently broadened to those in their 50s and older, the broadcasting industry has turned its eyes to films that were hits in the past.
"In the past, film and drama moved as separate markets, but now a single IP connects theaters, OTT, dramas, merchandise, and even fan communities," an industry official said. "In particular, box-office hits from the 2000s have already secured public recognition, giving them the advantage of being able to target both nostalgia and new audiences at once."
One notable point is that "Fabricated City," "Spellbound," and "Untold Scandal" were all films distributed by CJ ENM. This draws attention because, for content companies that also possess the capabilities to produce various content across film, drama, and OTT, it can be an opportunity to repurpose hit works in various formats and expand IP indefinitely. "The successive appearance of dramas based on original films goes beyond simple remakes and is tied to changes in the K-content industry's IP strategy, including a viewership that has expanded to those in their 40s and 50s," another industry official said. "As the source IP market, once dominated by webtoons, diversifies into films, novels, and games, films that were loved in theaters are being reborn as new narratives for the OTT era."
However, some point out that as the trend of producing dramas from films, webtoons, and web novels with proven box-office success intensifies, the discovery of new creators and new stories could slow down. Kim Heon-sik, a pop culture critic, noted, "As competition in the content market is fierce, cases of adapting past box-office hits into dramas are highly likely to increase further in the future." He added, "As box-office track record becomes the top priority in judging value, this could lead to a decline in the development of new IP."
