With The Glory, Song Hye-Kyo has proved her worth as a versatile actress. From featuring in Descendants of the Sun to Autumn In My Heart & more, the South Korean actress has been a part of a rom-com plotline, but with The Glory, she broke her acting barrier. She got a lot of appreciation for portraying such a bold character. However, do you know how much she got paid per episode for the Netflix K-drama? Scroll ahead to get to the scoop!
South Korean actors and actresses have often seen a huge gap in their salaries, but Hye-Kyo and Jeon Ji-hyun are the highest-paid actresses in the industry. For the unversed, it is expected that after the massive success of The Glory, the actress’ salary might just be increased.
Directed by PD Ahn Gil-ho, The Glory also stars Lee Do-hyun, Lim Ji-yeon, Yeom Hye-ran, Park Sung-hoon, and others in pivotal roles apart from Song Hye-Kyo. However, according to a reporter, Ahn Jin-young, who works with Moonhwa Ilbo, declared in one of his YouTube videos, “Actresses receive less than actors” and added, “Jeon Ji Hyun and Song Hye Kyo would command around 200 million KRW (~162,595 USD) per episode.”
He even estimated that Song’s salary will see a hike after The Glory’s success and said, “Recently, thanks to Song Hye Kyo’s achievements on Netflix’s The Glory, Song Hye Kyo’s salary will rise even more.” So that means Song Hye-Kyo received a staggering paycheck of $163,000 per episode of the series, and the series had 16 episodes, so you can do the math. Phew, that’s a lot of money!
Ahn Jin Young, in the same video, talking about the male actor’s salary, explained, “They receive a guarantee of more than 300 million KRW per episode for a TV drama. The licensing fees of one drama – based on a 16-episode drama – can reach close to 4.8 billion KRW (3.9 million USD) to 5 billion KRW (~4 million USD) (per country).” He even shared that if the celebs gain international popularity, then that can affect their paychecks as well, like Lee Min Ho and Kim Soo Hyun, who already receive well over 300 million KRW per episode.