It has been revealed that actor Kim Soo-hyun’s drama appearance fee is not 800 million won per episode as previously reported
On March 26th, the production team of tvN’s Saturday-Sunday drama “Queen of Tears” (written by Park Ji-eun, directed by Jang Young-woo and Kim Hee-won) told MyDaily, “The claim that Kim Soo-hyun’s appearance fee per episode is 800 million won is not true.“
Earlier on the same day, Newsen reported, citing multiple drama production company representatives, that Kim Soo-hyun would receive 800 million won per episode for appearing in “Queen of Tears”. If “Queen of Tears” consists of 16 episodes and the fee is indeed 800 million won per episode, the total appearance fee would amount to 12.8 billion won, which is one-third of the 40 billion won production budget.
Particularly, it was previously reported that Kim Soo-hyun received 500 million won per episode for his appearance in Coupang Play’s “One Ordinary Day” in 2021. As “One Ordinary Day” consisted of 8 episodes, Kim Soo-hyun received a total appearance fee of 3 billion won. Therefore, the claim of Kim Soo-hyun’s appearance fee of 800 million won per episode for “Queen of Tears” garnered significant attention.
However, according to MyDaily’s confirmation, the claim that Kim Soo-hyun’s appearance fee for “Queen of Tears” is 800 million won per episode is not true. The production team of “Queen of Tears” immediately denied this claim. This unexpected rumor of 800 million won unfairly puts “Queen of Tears” and Kim Soo-hyun in a difficult position.
Meanwhile, “Queen of Tears” depicts the dizzying crisis and miraculous rekindling of love between Hong Hae-in (Kim Ji-won), a third-generation chaebol heiress of Queens Group, and Baek Hyun-woo (Kim Soo-hyun), the son of farmers from Yongdu-ri, and their three years of marriage.
It is the new work by Park Ji-eun, the writer of tvN’s drama “Crash Landing on You“. Additionally, it is the third collaboration between Kim Soo-hyun and writer Park Ji-eun after SBS’s “My Love from the Star” and KBS 2TV’s “The Producers”. Moreover, it marks Kim Soo-hyun’s return to the small screen after four years since “It’s Okay to Not Be Okay” (2020) and Kim Ji-won’s return after two years since JTBC’s “My Liberation Notes” (2022).
“Queen of Tears” started with a rating of 5.9% for its first episode and achieved a peak rating of 15% by its sixth episode, receiving much love and even topping the viewership ratings in its time slot across all channels, including terrestrial networks.
