As interest in Korean content continues across the globe, Korean IP exports have hit new heights. In 2023, Korea’s copyright exports reached a whopping $3.35 billion while the IP sector for culture and arts generated over a billion dollars in profit for the first time.

Content overseas based on Korean IP includes films, television dramas, variety shows and animations. For instance, Hwang Dong-hyuk’s Miss Granny (2014) has been remade into different versions across Asia while Bong Joon Ho’s Snowpiercer – though itself based on a French graphic novel – was turned into a US TV series following the success of the film. The ABC drama The Good Doctor that spanned seven seasons was based on the 2013 Korean drama of the same name. The US reality singing competition The Masked Singer that recently wrapped up its thirteenth season originated from the Korean show King of Mask Singer.

Korean animated characters have also turned into popular IP. Baby Shark became a global hit on YouTube and remains the most-viewed video on the platform with over 15 billion views. It was turned into a film Baby Shark’s Big Movie (2023) that was co-produced by The Pinkfong Company (that owns the IP), GFM Animation and Nickelodeon Animation Studios – it was globally distributed by Paramount.

Also popular with overseas viewers is the animation brand Catch! Teenieping with the IP being exported to more than 140 countries. Launched as a series on KBS in 2020, it also was turned into an animation Heartsping: Teenieping of Love (2024) that accumulated more than 1.2 million admissions in Korea.

As intellectual property, webtoons are continuing to play a central role in Korea’s content industry. They are also being adapted into films and series outside of Korea with the Chinese film Moon Man (2022) that grossed over $450 million in China an illustration of their potential. It is based on the 2016 webtoon Moon You by Cho Seok.   

This week we will track some of Korea’s IP export trends focusing on films that have been turned into content overseas, sometimes films but also series and animations. We begin with the horror series Bunshinsaba and will then turn to Bong Joon Ho and the films that have been or are being adapted into television series. We will conclude with Miracle in Cell No. 7  (2013) that marks an interesting chapter for Korean content because it has been adapted into two Indonesian films and an animated series.

A Korean Franchise was Born Overseas - Bunshinsaba

A Korean film that turned into a series of features in China was Ahn Byeong-ki’s horror film Bunshinsaba, Ouija Board (2004). Starring Kim Gyu-ri, Lee Yoo-ri and Lee Se-eun the Korean feature performed strongly in cinemas selling over a million tickets in the summer of 2004 in what was the peak of Korean horror. Kim Jee-woon’s A Tale of Two Sisters (2003) accrued 3 million admissions a year earlier.

Bunshinsaba follows three young girls who use a curse to punish four bullies but in doing so unleash a Ouija board’s deadly supernatural powers. The film was distributed by Disney’s Buena Vista marking the second time it had collaborated with Ahn Byeong-ki after financing and distributing Ahn’s The Phone (2002) – One of Disney’s first Korean-language projects.

The Chinese version of Bunshinsaba that was also directed by Ahn wouldn’t be released until 2012 when Korean studios were seeking to capitalize on China’s rapidly growing market. Featuring South Korean actress Park Han-byul alongside Xin Zhilei and Zhang Haoran, it centers on a group of friends who have gone their separate ways, but they become haunted by events 10 years prior involving a Ouija board. The film at the time began its theatrical run with the biggest opening weekend for a Chinese-produced horror film generating $4.19 million.

It was an international co-production with Korea’s Joy N Contents Group financing and distributing the feature in Korea. The company was also involved in the Chinese sequel that hit screens in 2013. A third Chinese-language film, Bunshinsaba 3 (2014), was released in China in 2014 generating $7.89 million there.  It led to crossovers with Bunshinsaba vs. Sadako (2016) that secured releases in both Japan and China, along with a sequel Bunshinsaba vs. Sadako 2 (2017). A third sequel, Bunshinsaba: Hoichi the Earless (2021) was also released.

Bunshinsaba, therefore, was an early example in the contemporary era of Korean IP finding a home in the wider Asian region having turned into a franchise of its own outside Korea. It was also interesting in terms of international co-productions with Ahn Byeong-ki seeking to make films in China as the industry was looking at opportunities in parts of Asia and further afield.

Bong Joon Ho’s Films Adapted into TV-series – Snowpiercer (2013), Parasite (2019)

The genre-bending work of Bong Joon Ho hasn’t just made an impact on film but Snowpiercer, for instance, has been turned into a TV series. While the film’s original source material is a French graphic novel (Le Transperceneige) after Bong came across it in a comic store in Seoul and then secured the rights, it was his film that ultimately led to the TV series that includes four seasons. The series is based on both the film and the graphic novel with the series using the film’s names, artwork while incorporating the original story and its themes.

The series and the film are set on a train after an experiment to reverse global warming goes wrong leaving the last remaining inhabitants on a train. In the film it is controlled by a mysterious figure called Wilford played by Ed Harris though the plot evolves differently in the series.

The series was co-produced by CJ ENM, the studio behind the film, while Bong Joon Ho is credited as Executive Producer along with Park Chan-wook – Bong’s producing partner on the film – as well as other producers including Dooho Choi and the Vice Chairwoman of the CJ Group, Miky Lee.

Bong is also involved as executive producer on a limited series based on his Oscar-winning Parasite for HBO collaborating with director and writer Adam McKay. Bong confirmed to Deadline earlier this year when promoting Mickey 17 (2025) that the writers for the TV series “are working very hard” on it.  

CJ is also co-producing the remake of Save the Green Planet! (2003) called Bugonia starring Emma Stone and directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. With global interest in Korean content continuing, CJ is also heavily invested in adapting Korean IP for the English-language market.

Miracle in Cell No. 7  turned into Indonesian Sequel and Animated Series

Markets in Southeast Asia have become focal point for the Korean studios, not least after the Chinese market became more challenging owing to the THAAD missile crisis in the mid-2010s. Markets in this region like Indonesia with their large populations provide the studios with opportunities to export their IP. CJ ENM has seen much success with remake of its titles like Sunny (2011) and Miss Granny (2014).

This was taken a step further with Lee Hwan-kyung’s Miracle in Cell No. 7 (2013) that centers on man (Ryu Seung-ryong) with learning disabilities who is wrongly accused of murder and his daughter (Kal So-won) who is smuggled into the prison. It was a Korean box office hit amassing 12.8 million admissions. An Indonesian remake directed by Hanung Bramantyo was released in 2022 proving popular with audiences selling 5.85 million tickets becoming then the fifth highest grossing Indonesian film.  Although there was no Korean sequel, a subsequent film titled 2^nd Miracle in Cell No. 7 (2024) helmed by Herwin Novianto hit screens in Indonesia in December of 2024. The sequel follows the girl (Graciella Abigail) and the inmates as they continue to seek to protect her when social services attempt to stop her adoption.

An animated spinoff was also greenlit consisting of eight episodes that are twenty-two minutes long directed by Daryl Wilson, the CEO and co-founder of Falcon’s Kumata Animation Studio. Falcon Pictures produced the Indonesian remakes.

At the Asian Contents and Film Market hosted alongside the Busan International Film Festival in 2024, Falcon and the Korean studio NEW that own the original IP held an event to discuss the projects underlining the significance of the IP and its potential in markets like Indonesia and elsewhere.

Contents Panda (NEW) Executive Vice President Danny Lee said that remake rights had been sold in the middle East while Spanish and Hindi remakes are also being produced. It was also remake in Turkey and the Philippines – both released in 2019.

Written by Jason Bechervaise

Edited by kofic