SEOUL  –  Globally, Korean content is booming. K-film and television exports doubled between 2019 and 2024, and last year, the nation’s audiovisual sector added $16.4 billion to the economy, supporting 291,100 jobs. But beneath the surface, South Korea’s film industry is facing enormous funding challenges. Domestic box office sales are 45% less than they were pre-pandemic, in part due to the rise of streaming. As a result, production companies are pulling back on funding: last year, just 20 films were made with a budget over 3 billion won ($2.15 million), compared to 40 to 50 annually pre-pandemic, according to the Korean Film Council.  “Korean production costs have risen significantly in recent years,” says Hyun-jung Baek, head of content innovation at CJ ENM, South Korea’s largest entertainment and content production company. “So even though K-content is expanding globally, the profits coming from it aren’t great.” Many production companies, including CJ ENM, are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to help them cut costs and accelerate timelines.  “There is a real spectrum of opinions on it,” says Seoul-based film critic Darcy Paquet. While the technology can make human labor “more effective,” it can also be used to “cut corners, save costs and speed up the process without the quality,” says Paquet. While South Korea has been embracing AI-generated content for several years — with fully AI-generated shorts like “It’s Me, Moon-hee,” and more recently with CJ ENM’s webtoon series “Cat Biggie” — the technology is now appearing in feature-length films in a major way.  “Run to the West,” billed as South Korea’s “first AI feature film” when it released in October, used extensive AI to render mythical creatures, fantastical backdrops, explosions and special effects sequences. Compared with traditional computer-generated imagery techniques, AI tools were 10 times faster and cut costs by half, says the film’s AI director, Hansl Kwon, founder and CEO of Seoul-based AI film studio Freewillusion. The studio recently hired 60 new AI artists, quadrupling its talent pool and creating new career opportunities at the cutting edge of filmmaking, he says.

Just last month, CJ ENM released its own AI-hybrid film, “The House,” a 60-minute horror thriller produced in collaboration with Google Cloud Korea for just 500 million won (around $336,000).