A 2025 Guide to Investing in Korean Movies and TV Dramas

South Korean dramas and films are no longer a niche interest. They are a major export industry. Korean cultural exports were higher than manufactured goods like secondary batteries and electric cars. That being said, Korean shows are now the most-watched non-US shows on Netflix.

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There are several ways for movie and TV fans who want to invest in Korean movies and TV shows, ranging from new tokenized IP projects to publicly traded media companies.

Tokens, IP, and Crypto-Linked Experiments

The most recent layer is investing in Korean culture IP through blockchain. Several tests show how movies and TV shows might be able to get money in the future:

With its own token, MovieBloc (MBL), which was created by the Korean streaming service Pandora.tv, MovieBloc is a decentralized film and content distribution project that wants to make it easier for creators to see their audience data and share income.

Seoul Exchange announced in 2025 that it would create a regulated market for tokenized Korean content intellectual property. The market would use Story Protocol's blockchain to sell K-drama rights, K-pop royalties, webtoons, and other cultural assets as security tokens.

In theory, Korean film and drama producers could use similar structures to raise budgets directly from fans, issuing tokens that represent a slice of future royalties or IP value. ICO-style offerings are structured and evaluated from a crypto-investor perspective, which would become relevant if more Korean content projects choose that route.

ICOs work a lot like crowdfunding in that communities can meaningfully influence a project's growth while early backers hope to capture outsized upside. They have become a standard way for Web3 projects to fund everything from DeFi platforms to new utility tokens. (source: https://cryptonews.com/kr/cryptocurrency/best-crypto-icos/). In the practical sense, they sit somewhere between traditional film funds and today's NFT-style merch, only it requires clear rules on who gets paid, when, and under which jurisdiction. Early participants often gain access to tokens at discounted rates and can see additional returns once those ICO projects are listed on major exchanges

Separate deals have already brought a $100 million catalogue of Korean music IP on-chain, signalling how cultural rights are being packaged as investable tokens for both institutions and retail investors.

Listed Content Studios and Media Groups

The easiest way to invest is in Korean content production or distribution companies that are sold on the stock market.

The CJ ENM entertainment group is one of the most acclaimed in Korea. It works in TV, movies, music, the internet, and live events, and it runs the popular drama Studio Dragon.

Studio Dragon is listed on its own and works on selling scripted shows to global platforms like Netflix as well as regional broadcasters and streamers. Its investment reports stress the importance of making high-quality dramas and growing into Asian co-productions.

When you buy shares in these companies, you indirectly get access to more than one movie or TV show. Not just one hit is what makes performance rely on a stream of successful content, licensing deals in other countries, and platform deals. Foreign-listed streaming services that focus on Korean material, like Netflix, are another indirect play for investors from other countries because they make money off of Korean shows on a global level.

Film Funds, Private Capital and Government Support

Specialized funds and mixed public-private structures are also used to make Korean movies and TV shows. Cultural and film VC funds are quite popular. These are funds where private investors meet the initial government funding for local content projects.

A big part is played by the Korean Film Council (KOFIC), which was established in 1973. It helps domestic films by giving money, doing study, and giving training. It has also been involved in talks about new ways to get money, like crowdfunding projects.

At the same time, separate study lists a number of film-focused investors and funds based in Seoul. This shows that private capital has become more involved in supporting production and related start-ups.

Individual investors usually can't get direct access to these funds; they're only open to companies or wealthy clients. But the fact that they exist is important because they make project selection more professional and spread risk across a number of films instead of just one.

Crowdfunding and Fan-Led Investment

Campaigning has grown into a key way for fans to connect with artists. Korean sites like Wadiz, Tumblebug, and others have given money to thousands of cultural projects, ranging from film and drama-related campaigns to concerts and art shows.

More and more young people are giving small amounts of money to culture projects. This is known as "deoktuilchi" in Korean media. According to reports, cultural crowdfunding on one major platform rose from about ₩2 billion to ₩7 billion from 2016 to 2018. A big chunk of that growth went to film and performance projects.

For movies and TV shows, these efforts sometimes offer rewards based on profits or royalties, but a lot of the time, they are still set up as pre-orders or perks instead of formal securities. You need to read the rules carefully and think of these as high-risk, high-variance bets because there aren't as many protections as on public markets.