Latest news with #KoreanContent
France 24
6 days ago
- Business
- France 24
Netflix profits surge off ads, higher subscription prices
Revenue climbed 16 percent to $11.1 billion in the quarter ended June 30, beating analyst estimates and the company's own guidance, while net profit surged to $3.1 billion. The company raised its full-year revenue forecast, noting that it expects revenue to be between $44.8 billion and $45.2 billion in 2025, up from a range of $43.5 billion to $44.5 billion. Netflix highlighted strong performance from its content offers in the quarter, with major hits including the third season of "Squid Game," which drew 122 million views. It "has already become our sixth biggest season of any series in our history, with just a few weeks of viewing so far," the company said in a statement. Other standout titles included the third season of "Ginny & Georgia" with 53 million views and "Sirens" with 56 million views. There was also the animated film "KPop Demon Hunters" with 80 million views, which became "one of our biggest animated films ever" and generated a soundtrack that topped music charts globally. "Korean content continues to be popular with our audience," the company said, pointing to the continued success of international programming that has become a hallmark of Netflix's global strategy. Netflix expressed optimism about the second half of 2025, highlighting an upcoming slate that includes the highly anticipated second season of "Wednesday," the final season of "Stranger Things" and new films from major directors including Kathryn Bigelow and Guillermo del Toro. The company has also announced plans to expand live programming with marquee boxing matches and NFL games, as it continues to diversify its content offerings beyond traditional on-demand entertainment. Netflix shares have surged more than 40 percent year-to-date as investors have responded positively to the company's shift toward profitability, which saw it crack down on password sharing and turn to ads for more revenue. The company counted over 300 million subscribers last December, at the end of a particularly successful holiday season, when it gained almost 19 million new subscriptions. But the company no longer discloses these figures, in order to focus on audience "engagement" metrics (time spent watching content). In the quarter, Netflix continued to build out its advertising capabilities, saying that it expects to roughly double ads revenue in 2025, though it did not provide specific figures. The service is forecasting $9 billion in revenues from its ad-based subscriptions by 2030. "With another robust earnings showing in Q2, Netflix continues a winning streak going back several quarters and cements its place as the leader among streaming services," said Emarketer analyst Paul Verna.
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Academy Museum and CJ ENM Partner Up for Korean Content-Themed Event Ahead of KCON
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and Korean entertainment giant CJ ENM are partnering up to host a cultural event to celebrate Korean content. Titled 'K-Culture Night at Academy Museum with KCON,' the event will celebrate the K-pop festival's 13th anniversary and the company's 30th anniversary. The celebration, taking place on July 31, is being put on as part of CJ ENM's three-year-long partnership with the Academy Museum, which was announced earlier this year. More from The Hollywood Reporter Blackpink Returns to L.A. to Remind Us All Why They're the Biggest Girl Group in the World Streaming Ratings: 'Bluey' Reign Continues in First Half of 2025, 'Squid Game' Leads Originals Blackpink Teams Up with Fanatics and Complex for L.A. Pop-Up K-Culture Night, held at the museum's David Geffen Theater, is slated to include a slew of entertainment figures. American-born Korean singer Eric Nam will serve as the evening's emcee. Dancer Choi Hojong, K-pop stars Lee Youngji and P1Harmony, J-pop girl group Is:sue and Squid Game star Yim Siwan will make appearances throughout the night. All of the stars taking part in the event will be performing at KCON in some capacity that weekend. The first event to come from CJ EMN's and the Academy Museum's partnership was 'Director's Inspiration: Bong Joon Ho,' an exhibit centered around the Parasite director's work, which opened in March. KCON, the world's no. 1 K-pop festival, will return to downtown's Los Angeles Convention Center and Arena for a three-day event Aug. 1 through Aug. 3, giving local K-Pop fans a chance at seeing several of their favorite acts under the same roof. This year's KCON lineup includes HxW (Hoshi and Woozi of Seventeen), NCT 127, Aespa, Monsta X, Key, IVE, NMIXX and Zerobaseone. Baby DONT Cry, Riize, Hwasa, Meovv, Nowz, Idid, Izna, Jackson Wang, J-pop group JO1, Roy Kim, I-dle, Yuqi, AllDay Project, Cravity and Kep1er will also perform throughout the festival's three-day-long concert series. Girl group Kiss of Life was previously announced but will no longer be attending. Best of The Hollywood Reporter From 'Party in the U.S.A.' to 'Born in the U.S.A.': 20 of America's Most Patriotic (and Un-Patriotic) Musical Offerings Most Anticipated Concert Tours of 2025: Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar & SZA, Sabrina Carpenter and More Hollywood's Most Notable Deaths of 2025
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Academy Museum and CJ ENM Partner Up for Korean Content-Themed Event Ahead of KCON
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and Korean entertainment giant CJ ENM are partnering up to host a cultural event to celebrate Korean content. Titled 'K-Culture Night at Academy Museum with KCON,' the event will celebrate the K-pop festival's 13th anniversary and the company's 30th anniversary. The celebration, taking place on July 31, is being put on as part of CJ ENM's three-year-long partnership with the Academy Museum, which was announced earlier this year. More from The Hollywood Reporter Blackpink Returns to L.A. to Remind Us All Why They're the Biggest Girl Group in the World Streaming Ratings: 'Bluey' Reign Continues in First Half of 2025, 'Squid Game' Leads Originals Blackpink Teams Up with Fanatics and Complex for L.A. Pop-Up K-Culture Night, held at the museum's David Geffen Theater, is slated to include a slew of entertainment figures. American-born Korean singer Eric Nam will serve as the evening's emcee. Dancer Choi Hojong, K-pop stars Lee Youngji and P1Harmony, J-pop girl group Is:sue and Squid Game star Yim Siwan will make appearances throughout the night. All of the stars taking part in the event will be performing at KCON in some capacity that weekend. The first event to come from CJ EMN's and the Academy Museum's partnership was 'Director's Inspiration: Bong Joon Ho,' an exhibit centered around the Parasite director's work, which opened in March. KCON, the world's no. 1 K-pop festival, will return to downtown's Los Angeles Convention Center and Arena for a three-day event Aug. 1 through Aug. 3, giving local K-Pop fans a chance at seeing several of their favorite acts under the same roof. This year's KCON lineup includes HxW (Hoshi and Woozi of Seventeen), NCT 127, Aespa, Monsta X, Key, IVE, NMIXX and Zerobaseone. Baby DONT Cry, Riize, Hwasa, Meovv, Nowz, Idid, Izna, Jackson Wang, J-pop group JO1, Roy Kim, I-dle, Yuqi, AllDay Project, Cravity and Kep1er will also perform throughout the festival's three-day-long concert series. Girl group Kiss of Life was previously announced but will no longer be attending. Best of The Hollywood Reporter From 'Party in the U.S.A.' to 'Born in the U.S.A.': 20 of America's Most Patriotic (and Un-Patriotic) Musical Offerings Most Anticipated Concert Tours of 2025: Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar & SZA, Sabrina Carpenter and More Hollywood's Most Notable Deaths of 2025
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Netflix Orders Live-Action Adaptation of Korean Fantasy Sensation ‘Solo Leveling' With Byeon Woo-seok Set to Star
Netflix is leveling up its Korean content slate once again, commissioning a live-action adaptation of Solo Leveling, the wildly popular web novel, webtoon and anime franchise that has become one of Korea's biggest crossover hits in recent years. The fantasy-action series will star fast-rising actor Byeon Woo-seok (Lovely Runner, 20th Century Girl), with production led by Kakao Entertainment and SANAI Pictures. Byeon, who has emerged as one of Korea's most in-demand young stars, has long been fan-cast in the role of Sung Jin-woo, Solo Leveling's brooding antihero. The actor's striking visual presence — described by fans as 'straight out of a manhwa' (the Korean word for comics) — makes him a natural fit to embody Jin-woo's transformation from the weakest hunter in the land to humanity's last hope against supernatural annihilation, Netflix says. More from The Hollywood Reporter Thanks to Netflix, Kirk Cousins Will Never Pay for a Haircut Again 'Queer Eye' Set to End With Season 10 at Netflix RPG 'Kingdom Come: Deliverance II' and Its Cinematic Cut Take the Karlovy Vary Spotlight Based on the smash hit web novel published on KakaoPage, Solo Leveling has racked up a staggering 14.3 billion cumulative views globally across its various formats. Earlier this year, its anime adaptation made history as the first Korean IP-based series to sweep the 2025 Crunchyroll Anime Awards, taking home nine trophies, including anime of the year and best action. Set in a world where portals known as 'Gates' connect reality to deadly alternate dimensions, the story follows Sung Jin-woo, an E-rank hunter barely strong enough to survive low-level missions. But after a brutal dungeon raid nearly kills him, Jin-woo awakens with a mysterious new ability: he can 'level up' in power through combat, gaining strength faster than anyone before him. As he grows, so too does the scale of the threat he faces — monstrous invaders pouring from the Gates who threaten to obliterate humanity itself. The series will be co-directed by Lee Hae-jun and Kim Byung-seo, the filmmaking team behind Ashfall, Castaway on the Moon, and Like a Virgin. Netflix says the production will feature a world-class global VFX team to bring the story's high-stakes fantasy and action set-pieces to life. Solo Leveling joins Netflix's growing arsenal of premium Korean genre titles as it seeks to build upon the worldwide expectations it has established with Squid Game, following recent greenlights for Notes from the Last Row, The Rat (WT) and Lovestruck, among others. The project can be seen as representing not only a major swing at the live-action fantasy-action genre, but also a test of Korea's ongoing efforts to translate its webtoon boom into prestige series success for global audiences. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Studio': 30 Famous Faces Who Play (a Version of) Themselves in the Hollywood-Based Series 22 of the Most Shocking Character Deaths in Television History A 'Star Wars' Timeline: All the Movies and TV Shows in the Franchise
South China Morning Post
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Squid Game's final season breaks Netflix viewership records
The third season of Netflix's blockbuster series Squid Game racked up record viewership in its first three days, reinforcing the Korean survival drama's status as a global cultural phenomenon. The final season of the dystopian thriller logged more than 60 million views in its first three days – the biggest debut in that time frame – and ranked No 1 across all 93 countries with top 10 rankings, according to Netflix. That compares with the debut of the previous season, which drew 68 million views in the first four days. The runaway success of Squid Game highlights the enduring international appeal of Korean storytelling and Netflix's pivotal role in amplifying it. The series reflects deep-seated social anxieties while spotlighting South Korea's creative firepower. For Netflix, which has invested billions of dollars into Korean content, the challenge now is sustaining momentum with a pipeline strong enough to command global attention. Originally released in 2021, Squid Game was an instant hit and a cornerstone of Netflix's local-for-local strategy. The series remains Netflix's most-watched title of all time, amassing around 600 million views across its first two seasons to date. Lee Byung-hun as Front man in Squid Game Season 3. Photo: Netflix 'Squid Game really must have been the first real Korean drama for a lot of people outside Korea to watch,' said Don Kang, vice-president of Netflix's Korean content, in an interview. 'Ever since then, 80 per cent of Netflix members have watched Korean content and many of them still continue to do so.'
