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Abstract

This study compares Netflix Korean original films with top-grossing Korean theatrical films using Napoli’s diversity taxonomy. Drawing on a cross-sectional sample (2021–2024) with a historical benchmark (2006–2020), it assesses differences in source diversity (production-company concentration), content diversity (genres, creative roles, and expressive intensity via age ratings), and the narrative articulation of Korean locality. The results reveal that while Netflix functions as a new type of investor creating opportunities for some filmmakers, it operates within entrenched patterns of capital concentration while exhibiting selective diversification across content dimensions. These findings suggest that Netflix’s promotional rhetoric of global diversity functions less as straightforward cultural inclusion than as a market expansion strategy that reinforces broader patterns of capital accumulation, revealing the complex entanglement of diversity discourse with platform capitalism.

Keywords

Netflix Korean film diversity genre hybridity locality streaming service film industry

Introduction

Moving beyond cultural imperialism frameworks, South Korea (hereinafter Korea) has gained recognition as an emerging regional production hub and a leading example of counter-flow (Straubhaar, 2007; Tunstall, 2007). A 2025 industry analysis indicates that between 2023 and 2024, Korean productions consistently ranked as the second most-viewed content category on Netflix after U.S. programming, accounting for approximately 8–9 percent of total viewing time (Ampere, 2025). Despite this global success, Korea’s cultural industries – particularly its film sector – have a long-standing history of resisting Hollywood’s global distribution power and capital penetration while asserting cultural sovereignty. Since the late 1980s, Korea’s film industry has faced increasing pressure from U.S. media conglomerates. After the 1988 Motion Picture Law permitted direct distribution, major studios such as Fox, Warner Brothers, Columbia, and Disney established branches in Korea (Choi, 2010: 16). The 2006 reduction of the screen quota to 73 days under the Korea–U.S. FTA further weakened domestic cinema. In response, the Korean film industry adopted two main strategies: promoting diversity to enhance competitiveness and pursuing hybridization by integrating Korean locality with Hollywood-style technology and universal narratives. This trend marked the rise of what has been termed ‘Korean nationalist blockbuster cinema’, as industry discourse increasingly emphasized diversity as central to Korean cinema’s competitiveness (Lee, 2020: 102–103).

However, the recent rise of streaming services has newly disrupted the Korean film industry by introducing a novel business model. By the end of 2024, Netflix had surpassed 300 million global subscribers and reported annual revenue of US$39 billion, a significant increase from US$5.5 billion a decade earlier. As part of its international expansion strategy, Netflix is projected to reach 70.1 million subscribers in the Asia-Pacific region by 2029 (Stoll, 2025). The shift to streaming was further accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which deepened a theatrical decline that continues today. Globally, Over-the-Top (OTT) service revenues have exceeded box office earnings since 2019, reaching US$126.45 billion in 2024 and comprising 77.3% of the total audiovisual market – more than triple theatrical revenues (Korean Film Council 2025: 26). In Korea, the revenue gap between theatrical films (including box office and advertising) and OTT services has widened substantially over time. Theatrical revenue grew from US$454 million in 2020 to US$924 million in 2024, while OTT revenue – including subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) and transactional video-on-demand (TVOD) – increased more dramatically, from US$546 million to US$1.519 billion over the same period (Korean Film Council, 2025: 29). This market transformation has profound implications for Korean cinema, which now faces a critical juncture driven partly by Netflix’s rising presence and sharp post-pandemic audience declines (B. Kim, 2023). Netflix has expanded its Korean content investment, planning to release 21 scripted series, 8 unscripted shows, and 8 original films in Korea during 2025 (Rahman, 2025).

Nevertheless, Netflix’s growing dominance raises questions that extend beyond market share, renewing debates on U.S. cultural hegemony and countervailing flows, with cultural diversity at the center of this discourse. Against this backdrop, this study compares Netflix Korean original films with Korea’s top 10 theatrical films to examine how diversity differs between the global streaming giant and traditional cinema. Specifically, it analyzes source diversity (production companies) and content diversity (genre, creative roles, and expressive intensity) through Napoli’s (1999) taxonomy, and examines how Netflix original films engage with locality to explore Netflix’s impact on Korean film production within the evolving film industry.

The rise of Netflix at the nexus between global and local

Since the mid-1990s, global media industries have rapidly transformed due to increased financial investment, digitalization, deregulation, and the rise of large media conglomerates (Winseck, 2011). The emergence of internet-distributed television marks a major shift in television history (Lobato, 2019; Lotz, 2017). Although television internationalization predates streaming, digital expansion and capital intensification have accelerated this process (Evens and Donders, 2018). Streaming platforms have reshaped audience behavior by employing diverse monetization strategies and expanding demand for varied content. Netflix has fostered a new culture of connected viewing through its extensive library and algorithm-driven personalization, reflecting a fundamentally distinct business model. Hadida et al. (2020) contrast Hollywood’s ‘commitment logic’, centered on box office returns, with Netflix’s ‘convenience logic’, which emphasizes subscriber retention through data-driven personalization. This approach enables Netflix to produce niche content, reduce dependence on theatrical distribution and star power, and promote titles algorithmically. Lotz (2021) argues such curation-based platforms create post-national consumption structures that weaken nation-centered content evaluations. Under these conditions, consumer demand is increasingly shaped by digital access and personalized discovery rather than national market size, allowing Netflix to expand globally and establish itself as a leading streaming platform. Netflix’s global expansion strategy reflects this operational logic. Brennan (2018) attributes Netflix’s success to two key strategies. First, it has pursued gradual international expansion by targeting geographically and culturally similar markets, starting with Canada in 2010, which allowed it to build global capabilities while minimizing the risks of foreign entry. Second, Netflix has actively partnered with local companies, such as telecom and cable providers, to integrate its service into existing platforms, fostering mutual benefits and market adaptability.

Netflix Originals and Korean Netflix original films

Netflix initiated its international expansion in 2010, with its inaugural venture into original content occurring through Lilyhammer (2012-2014), a Norwegian series that premiered simultaneously on NRK1 in Norway and Netflix in the U.S. and Canada. While externally produced, Lilyhammer established the foundation for Netflix’s exclusive content strategy (Albornoz and García-Leiva, 2022). Netflix formally commenced original content production in 2013, and by 2016, the platform’s transition toward decentralized production had become particularly pronounced (Brennan, 2018). This strategic shift occurred as Netflix discovered that investing in original content proved more beneficial than acquiring third-party licensing deals (Neira et al., 2023). Netflix launched breakthrough originals such as House of Cards (2013–2018) and Orange is the New Black (2013–2019), building large subscriber bases and audiences across different language markets. As Netflix expanded its global reach, the platform became increasingly tailored to specific regions through geographic differentiation and localization (Lobato, 2019: 14). Central to this strategy has been a ‘glocal’ approach, emphasizing collaboration with local media partners, particularly when entering new markets. Regarding Netflix’s business strategy, Wayne and Castro (2021) examine the process of industrial coordination based on partnerships with traditional operators during Netflix’s entry into the Israeli and Spanish markets. They highlight that while Netflix employs a ‘glocal’ strategy, the size and composition of its catalog vary significantly across countries. This geographic disparity is especially evident in Lobato's ( 2018) observation that as of 2017, the platform offered over 5000 titles in the United States but only about 1400 in some African markets such as Western Sahara and Zambia, revealing the U.S.-centric structure underlying its branded diversity. Despite these geographic inequalities in catalog size, Neira et al. (2023) analyze the nature of Netflix’s content from a global strategic perspective, arguing that Netflix employs a strategy of grouping users based on preferences rather than demographics such as gender, age, or geographic origin. They attribute Netflix’s global success to a strategic cycle that predicts content appeal by country from the outset and integrates approval, localization, marketing, and algorithmic distribution into a unified system. Central to this global strategy are Netflix Originals, which Netflix prioritizes due to long-term cost efficiency, global release potential, improved audience analytics, and enhanced international promotion (Neira et al., 2023).

The Korean market exemplifies Netflix’s glocalization strategy in practice. Netflix entered the Korean market in 2016 with limited impact, reaching only 130,000 subscribers by 2017. Local platforms like Oksusu, Pooq, and Tving dominated, and Netflix’s lack of major Korean titles limited its appeal (Lee, 2017). Netflix’s first major Korean investment was Bong Joon-ho’s Okja (2017), with a US$50 million budget (Jin, 2023b), yet early growth remained constrained by the absence of sustained original content production. A strategic pivot toward Korean content began in 2019 by enlisting acclaimed writer Kim Eun-hee for Kingdom (2019, 2020), alongside growing anticipation for Sweet Home (2020, 2023, 2024) and the introduction of a ‘Made in Korea’ category to highlight local productions (Kang, 2019). This strategy proved transformative, as subscriptions surged following the global success of Netflix Originals such as Squid Game (2021). The prominence of Korean content has led Netflix to regard Korea as pivotal to its expansion in Asia, with the country serving as a key regional hub for cultural production despite its population of only 51 million (Jin, 2023b: 458).

The rise of Netflix within the Korean film industry

To examine how Netflix reshaped the Korean film landscape, it is essential to understand the industry’s pre-existing structural dynamics. Over the past two decades, the sector has expanded through vertical integration led by a few conglomerates. While this structure reduced transaction costs and enhanced production capacity (Sunada, 2010), it also intensified market polarization by consolidating investment, distribution, and exhibition control among a few dominant corporations. These conglomerates have leveraged their substantial financial resources to dominate theatrical distribution networks while pursuing tentpole strategies that concentrate capital in large-scale productions and marketing campaigns (Korean Film Council, 2021). Films outside this oligopolistic framework, particularly small independent productions, face considerable exhibition obstacles that only intensified during and after the pandemic. In Korea’s film ecosystem, the three major multiplex chains – CGV, Lotte Cinema, and Megabox – exerted oligopolistic control over theatrical exhibition, accounting for 97.2% of theaters in 2019. As of 2019, major distributors (CJ, Lotte, NEW) accounted for 69% of the market; moreover, the top 5 distributors held an 84.4% share of the Korean film market (Korean Film Council, 2020).

Amid these structural challenges, Netflix entered the Korean market in 2016, emerging as a major investor behind hits like Kingdom (2019, 2020) and Squid Game (2021). While its funding is welcomed, concerns remain that Korea is becoming an outsourcing hub for U.S. media companies. The pandemic intensified this trend, as theater closures and rising ticket prices reduced attendance, shortened holdback periods, and made audiences more selective about theatrical viewing (B. Kim, 2023). As theatrical exhibition becomes increasingly constrained, Netflix positions itself as an alternative release platform for Korean films (M. Kim, 2020). However, this alternative comes with significant limitations. Unlike traditional film financing models, Netflix retains exclusive control over intellectual property rights, preventing filmmakers from generating secondary revenue streams. This practice has intensified in the post-pandemic era, limiting producers’ options and increasing their dependence on the platform despite diminished long-term profitability. While retaining residual rights is central to generating secondary revenue and corporate value in audiovisual production, Netflix’s exclusive control over intellectual property has raised concerns about the subordination of Korea’s audiovisual industry within the global value chain (Park et al., 2023).

Netflix genre diversity and its impact on Korean films

Netflix has influenced genre production through its decentralized production model and substantial investment in local content. While conventional cultural industries relied on genre stability for efficient production, the accelerated production-distribution-consumption cycle has reduced traditional rigidities, fostering greater fluidity between genres (Colombo, 2018: 143). However, assessments of Netflix’s influence on diversity continue to generate divergent views. Critical perspectives raise concerns that Netflix’s global distribution network reinforces a U.S.-centric cultural ecosystem, drawing on theories of cultural imperialism (Schiller, 1969) and, more recently, platform imperialism (Jin, 2015). Netflix’s capital-driven localization strategy has revived these debates by framing global–local media dynamics as ideologically embedded power relations rather than neutral market processes (Chalaby, 2009: 331). As subscription streaming services capture larger television audiences worldwide, concerns grow over unidirectional content flows on largely unregulated, predominantly U.S.-based platforms (Lobato, 2019: 144). Empirical research supports these concerns. Albornoz and García-Leiva (2022) find the limited growth of Spanish-produced Netflix Originals, which increased only from four to eight titles as the catalog expanded from 511 to 542 between 2018 and 2019. Although the range of languages available through dubbing and subtitling widened, English-language content remains dominant, reinforcing concerns about Americanization.

Genre transformation in local markets further illustrates these tensions. An analysis of Korean audiovisual content indicates a shift in Netflix’s K-drama offerings beyond traditional romance-focused narratives toward darker genres such as horror, thriller, and mystery (BB Media, 2025). Jin (2025) argues that when local creators shift from melodrama and romance to zombie, thriller, and science fiction genres to meet global platform demands, this trend may undermine cultural diversity and erode regional distinctiveness. This suggests that while Netflix may enable genre experimentation, it may simultaneously narrow genre diversity by prioritizing globally marketable genres over locally distinctive narratives. Conversely, alternative perspectives emphasize Netflix’s potential to enhance diversity. From this view, Netflix may broaden genre diversity by monetizing niche tastes through an on-demand model unconstrained by national borders or schedules. This approach reframes audiences as transnational communities defined by shared preferences rather than geography (Lotz, 2021: 207). However, this optimistic view must be tempered by consideration of Netflix’s technological infrastructure. Matthew (2020) argues that while Netflix promotes personalized recommendations through individualized algorithms, this may actually limit user agency and create homogenized consumption patterns, suggesting that the platform’s capacity for diversification may be constrained by its own algorithmic system.

Locality and genre hybridization in Korean films

Cultural hybridity represents the dynamic synthesis of distinct cultural forms and identities emerging through cross-cultural encounters that traverse national boundaries (Wang, 2008). Contemporary scholarship emphasizes the transformative potential of hybrid cultural formations, conceptualizing the global order as complex and heterogeneous rather than homogeneous. This hybridity challenges conventional center-periphery paradigms, positioning itself as a mechanism to contest hegemonic global forces (Jin, 2023a: 52). Within this framework, global cultural exchange unfolds as a fluid negotiation between local and global forces rather than centralized control (Wang, 2008). This theoretical perspective illuminates strategies employed by filmmakers in non-Hollywood markets. Alvaray (2013) demonstrates that Latin American filmmakers strategically blended local elements with Hollywood conventions, creating hybrid genres that expanded market reach while retaining regional narrative identities. Similarly, the Korean film industry has developed distinctive hybrid forms as a strategic response to Hollywood dominance. Under financial and technological constraints and amid pressure from the U.S. film industry following screen quota reductions, Korean cinema strategically developed hybrid genres that blend Hollywood-style action with local specificity, resulting in what is commonly referred to as the ‘Korean-style action blockbuster’. This emerging genre frequently employs inter-Korean settings that Hollywood cannot depict (Lee, 2020), positioning local geopolitical contexts as a source of competitive differentiation. However, a central issue in hybridity lies in the power imbalance embedded in the process of hybridization. Wang (2008) highlights how U.S. media dominate transculturation by selectively incorporating local elements to enhance global marketability, particularly in the case of Chinese martial arts films. Although local industries actively participate in hybrid cultural production, the models they adopt remain largely Western. This asymmetry has intensified with the rise of global streaming platforms. Netflix exemplifies politicized hybridity by leveraging its global capital to dominate distribution and create unequal partnerships that integrate local production into global value chains. This dominance enables Netflix to shape production practices and genre choices, prompting calls for policy intervention to protect local ownership and creative autonomy (Jin, 2023b).

Methods

This research applied Napoli’s (1999) diversity taxonomy to examine source and content diversity in Korean film production. It first compared all Korean Netflix Originals (n = 21) with the top 10 highest-grossing Korean theatrical films released between 2021 and 2024 (n = 40). This study defined Netflix Originals broadly as Netflix-exclusive Korean films, extending beyond productions with exclusive Netflix investment from development. This inclusive definition accounts for films that chose direct Netflix release, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since Netflix selectively acquired rather than accepted all such films, these selections reflect the platform’s strategic positioning and content curation in the Korean market. The top 10 theatrical films served as a comparable benchmark, reflecting both investor priorities and audience preferences. The analysis measured source diversity through production-company concentration and content diversity through genre composition, creative roles, and age-classification ratings which served as a proxy for expressive intensity by capturing content explicitness. Creative-role diversity compared directors, screenwriters, and actors across both datasets to assess whether Netflix’s practices diverge from traditional approaches. The study covered 2021–2024, when Netflix substantially increased its investment in Korean productions following the pandemic. To provide historical context for this cross-sectional analysis, findings were compared with box office trends from the top 10 Korean theatrical films released between 2006 and 2020 (n = 143¹), a period marked by intensified diversity debates following screen quota reductions. To assess genre diversity, this study used the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI = ∑MSi²), where MSi represents the percentage market share of each genre. The HHI ranges from 0 (maximum diversity) to 10,000 (minimum diversity). For easier interpretation, the genre diversity index (DI) was calculated as 10,000 minus the HHI, such that higher values indicated greater diversity. In addition, the CR3 score – the cumulative share of the top three genres – was used to identify genre dominance.

However, it should be noted that genre definition presents methodological challenges, as films increasingly hybridize genres and categorization remains inherently subjective. To mitigate these issues, each film was categorized using the first three genres listed on IMDb, since the analysis examined aggregate genre distribution rather than individual film classification. IMDb’s crowd-sourced yet editor-curated system balances audience input with editorial oversight (IMDb, n.d), making its multi-genre tags particularly suitable for this approach. By accommodating multiple genre tags, this method captured hybrid characteristics while mitigating the reductionism of single-genre classification. To complement this quantitative genre analysis, the study also compared how Netflix Originals and Korean theatrical films portrayed local specificity through a qualitative analysis of narrative-setting interactions in selected hybrid films.

Results

Source diversity

Regarding source diversity, the findings show that among the 21 Netflix Originals, about 43% (9 films) were backed by large corporations: CJ ENM (4 films), Studio Lululala (SLL) (4 films), and Studio N (1 film). Including one co-production (My name is Loh Kiwan, 2024), CJ ENM (Dragon Film 3, Moho Film 1) and SLL (Climax Studio 4, High Zium 1) participated in nine productions across eight films. Furthermore, although not classified as a major conglomerate, Apeita – the production company behind Carter (2022) – operates under K-Enter Holdings, a consortium of multiple content firms (S.Kim, 2024). In this context, the findings suggest that the Korean film industry has become increasingly capital-intensive, with Netflix fueling this momentum by offering high production budgets to major Korean production companies. This underscores the need to interpret Netflix’s growing dominance within the broader trend of capital concentration and highlights its potential impact on the diversity of Korean films.

While Netflix’s collaborations with major Korean media corporations reflect growing production consolidation within the film and drama industry, this trend is not new, as the industry has long been shaped by vertical integration. Among the 40 top-grossing films (2021–2024), two were produced by SLL and seven by CJ ENM or its affiliates, together accounting for 22.5% of the total. However, production-level concentration understates the real power dynamics, as distributors control film financing, release strategies, and profit allocation – the critical levers of capital accumulation in Korea’s film industry. Between 2021 and 2024, 24 of 40 films from the annual top 10 (60%) were distributed by CJ ENM, Lotte Entertainment, or Plus M. This share rose to 77.2% (n = 17) among high-budget titles (n = 22) exceeding KRW 10 billion (approximately US$7.5 million). Under this structure, most Korean production companies remain small-scale. As of 2020, production companies represented 54.7% of all film-related businesses in Korea (5520 companies), yet 91.9% employed fewer than ten workers, reflecting their limited resources and small-scale operations (Jung and Han, 2022: 242). This suggests that although Netflix Originals show a substantial presence of major corporate backing, this does not constitute a fundamental departure from earlier Korean film industry models. Rather, it reflects the increasingly blurred boundaries between the television and film industries (M. Kim, 2024), in which large integrated media corporations such as CJ ENM and SLL have increasingly ventured into both film and drama series production. In the Korean context, this may indicate not a structural shift in capital concentration itself but a change in the agents who exercise control over production companies.

Content diversity: Genre changes and the evolving nature of texts

A comparison of genre diversity between 21 Netflix Originals and 40 top-grossing Korean theatrical films (2021–2024) is shown in Figure 1 and Table 1. In both groups, action is the most prevalent genre, although Netflix Originals exhibit a notably higher proportion of thriller and crime. Specifically, Netflix Originals and the top 10 Korean films both favor action at 25.9% and 26%, respectively, yet Netflix’s share of thriller and crime genres exceeds that of theatrical releases. Notably, science fiction – historically rare in Korean cinema – has seen a rise on Netflix, accounting for 5.6% of titles.

Figure 1.

Genre composition by dataset (per-100; tag-based; % of total genre tags; sums to 100 per dataset).

Table 1.

Genre comparison. Count (%) reports film-based prevalence (n/N). Per-100 reports the tag-based composition – the share of each genre among all genre tags in each dataset (totals: 54/104/374; sums to 100). Each title can carry up to three tags. ‘Others’ aggregates sport, documentary, music, disaster, and war.

Genre	Netflix (n = 21)		K-films 2021–2024 (n = 40)		K-films 2006–2020 (n = 143)
	Count (%)	All genre tags per 100 (n = 54)	Count (%)	All genre tags per 100 (n = 104)	Count (%)	All genre tags per 100 (n = 374)
Drama	8 (38.1%)	14.8	15 (37.5%)	14.4	94 (65.3%)	25.3
Action	14 (66.7%)	25.9	27 (67.5%)	26	69 (47.9%)	18.5
Comedy	6 (28.6%)	11.1	11 (27.5%)	10.6	50 (34.7%)	13.4
Crime	8 (38.1%)	14.8	10 (25%)	9.6	40 (27.6%)	10.8
Thriller	6 (28.6 %)	11.1	11 (27.5 %)	10.6	30 (20.8%)	8.1
Romance	4 (19.0%)	7.4	3 (7.5%)	2.9	18 (12.5%)	4.8
History	1 (4.8%)	1.9	5 (12.5%)	4.8	18 (12.5%)	4.8
Fantasy & adventure	1 (4.8%)	1.9	8 (20%)	7.7	14 (9.7%)	3.8
Mystery	1 (4.8%)	1.9	6 (15%)	5.8	9 (6.3%)	2.4
Sci-fi	3 (14.3%)	5.6	0	0	6 (4.2%)	1.6
Horror	1 (4.8%)	1.9	5 (12.5%)	4.8	6 (4.2%)	1.6
Family	0		0	0	3 (2.1%)	0.8
Biography	0		3 (7.5%)	2.9	3 (2.1%)	0.8
Others	1 (4.8%)	1.9	0	0	12 (8.3%)	3.2

Expanding this comparison to include the genre distribution of the top 10 highest-grossing Korean films from 2006 to 2020, Korean films maintain a relatively more diverse genre distribution, with action comprising 18.5% and drama representing the largest share at 25.3%.

Next to action and drama, comedy (13.4%) and crime (10.8%) are also prominent among Korean film genres. When assessed against both recent theatrical releases (2021–2024) and this longer historical trajectory (2006–2020), Netflix Originals consistently exhibit higher proportions of darker genres like crime and thriller, alongside genres less commonly attempted in Korean cinema, such as sci-fi.

Yet this genre mix does not necessarily indicate broader diversity overall. Based on this genre composition, the HHI results for genre diversity are presented in Table 2. According to the findings, Netflix’s diversity score is lower than that of Korean films from 2006 to 2020 and also falls short of the diversity observed in the top 10 highest-grossing Korean films released between 2021 and 2024. According to the findings, it cannot be conclusively stated that Netflix contributes to overall genre diversity within the Korean film landscape. Instead, this analysis suggests that Netflix favors a narrower selection of specific genres – primarily action, crime, and thriller – compared to the broader variety found in Korean theatrical films.

Table 2.

Genre diversity and percentages of top three genres. Created by the author.

Category	HHI	Diversity index (10000-HHI)	CR3 (top 3 genres)
Korean top 10 (2006–2020)	1427	8573	57.2%
Korean top 10 (2021–2024)	1356	8644	51.0%
Netflix Originals (2021–2024)	1461	8539	55.6%

While aggregate genre distributions may not appear significant, differences emerge in expressive intensity, as reflected in age ratings (see Figure 2). Netflix films contain a markedly higher proportion of R-rated (18+) content than traditional Korean theatrical releases. While local films have historically pursued lower ratings to maximize audience reach in Korea’s relatively small market, Netflix’s global strategy favors niche and mature content. This investment in 18+ titles has raised concerns about growing portrayals of violence in Korean films (Hong, 2024). Moreover, genres traditionally popular in Korean cinema, such as biography and history, are notably underrepresented in Netflix’s catalog, reflecting its orientation toward international audiences rather than domestic tastes.

Figure 2.

Age rating guidelines for Netflix and Korea’s top 10 highest-grossing films (2021–2024). Created by the author.

Creative-role diversity

While Netflix employed 21 directors across 21 films with no director repeating within the 21-film sample, among the 40 top-grossing Korean theatrical releases (2021–2024), four directors – Ryu Seung-wan (3), Lee Sang-yong (2), Kim Han-min (2), and Yoon Jae-gyun (2) – handled multiple productions, jointly accounting for 9 of 40 films (22.5%). Likewise, Netflix engaged 31 screenwriters (including adapters) with no within-sample repeats, whereas the theatrical slate shows concentration, with eight screenwriters involved in 17 of 40 films (42.5%). In casting, repeat-performer coverage² differs notably: 8 of 21 Netflix films (38.1%) feature at least one actor who appears in multiple titles within the same dataset, compared to 19 of 40 theatrical films (47.5%). Moreover, the distribution patterns diverge: Netflix distributes repeat casting evenly – five performers appearing exactly twice – while theatrical releases show hierarchical concentration: among 13 repeat performers, the top three (Hwang Jung-min, Hyun Bin, Ma Dong-seok) account for about one-third of repeat appearances, and the remaining ten appear twice each. Taken together, Netflix shows no role-level repetition for directors and writers and lower repeat actor coverage compared to theatrical releases, indicating lower overall creator repetition across all three key creative roles. To place these findings in a broader context, Korean cinema (2006–2020) reveals highly path-dependent production practices. Among the top-grossing films (n = 143), the top ten actors appear in 65 titles (45.5%); the top ten directors in 35 (24.5%) and the top twenty in 57 (39.9%); and the top ten writers in 35 (24.5%) and the top twenty in 54 (37.8%). These contrasts suggest lower rates of creator repetition in Netflix Originals, particularly among directors and writers, in a Korean film industry where reliance on established creators has been the prevailing norm.

Different hybridities of narrative and setting

The differences between Netflix films and traditional Korean cinema extend beyond genre diversity to narrative structure and character dynamics. A defining feature of Korean cinema is its hybridity – often described as the ‘Korean style’ – as evident in the top-grossing films of 2021–2024. Many are deeply rooted in local contexts, including real-life adaptations such as Miracle (2021), Citizen of a Kind (2024), and The Firefighters (2024), and historical epics like Hansan: Rising Dragon (2022), Noryang: Deadly Sea (2023), 12.12: The Day (2023), Hero (2023), and Harbin (2024). Others, such as Exhuma (2024) and Concrete Utopia (2023), respectively draw on shamanic traditions and social stratification to construct metaphorical narratives reflecting contemporary Korean society. Furthermore, six films explore inter-Korean relations, a recurring theme in Korean action blockbusters, including Escape from Mogadishu (2021), Confidential Assignment 2 (2022), Hunt (2022), Escape (2024), Hijack (2024), and 6/45 (2022). Traditionally, Korean action films have long incorporated the unique inter-Korean relationship, balancing ethnic solidarity and political tension within the action genre to reflect South–North Korean dynamics. Confidential Assignment 2 (2022) unites North and South Korean detectives in a cross-border pursuit with a light romantic touch, 6/45 (2022) turns a lottery ticket blown over the DMZ into a military comedy, and Hunt (2022) follows 1980s agents racing to thwart a North Korean assassination plot. Each combines political tension with ethnic kinship, reflecting a nuanced sense of locality beyond Hollywood’s reach and central to Korean blockbusters. This is a historically recurring pattern in Korean action films (see Table 3).

Table 3.

Hybrid action films. Title source: H. Lee (2020) (2006–2019). Supplemented by the author.

Year	Title	Locality
2006	Korean Peninsula	An alternate-history political thriller in which Japan blocks an inter-Korean railway, prompting North and South Korea to unite over the Joseon royal seal and confront lingering colonial trauma
2010	Secret Reunion	A Seoul-set buddy thriller in which a dismissed South Korean intelligence agent and a former North Korean operative form an uneasy partnership, using dialect humor and inter-Korean mistrust to explore themes of division and reluctant fraternity
2010	71: Into the Fire	The true story of student soldiers defending Pohang Girls’ Middle School in 1950
2011	The Front Line	A Korean War drama set on the eastern front, where North and South Korean soldiers repeatedly fight over a single hill, revealing the futility of shifting borders and the shared humanity that transcends division
2013	Secretly, Greatly	A dark comedy about three North Korean sleeper agents disguised as ordinary youths in a Seoul neighborhood, whose conflicting loyalties and shattered ideals expose the absurdity of division and espionage
2013	The Berlin File	An espionage thriller centered on North and South Korean agents clashing in Berlin, where a defector couple’s fractured trust evokes Korea’s divided-family trauma and the enduring emotional costs of national division
2013	The Suspect	A fugitive North Korean defector framed for murder in the South uncovers a military–corporate conspiracy, reflecting Korea’s lingering tensions over defection and divided loyalty
2013	Commitment	A North Korean teen assassin infiltrates a Seoul high school to complete a mission that will secure his sister’s freedom, mixing coming-of-age settings with inter-Korean espionage and defector trauma
2015	Northern Limit Line	The true story of the battle of Yeonpyeong
2016	Battle of Incheon	Korean perspectives on MacArthur’s 1950 Incheon Landing, featuring a ROK covert unit
2017	Confidential Assignment	North and South Korean agents reluctantly team up to catch a cross-border criminal syndicate
2017	Steel Rain	After a coup in Pyongyang, a North Korean officer escorts the wounded Supreme Leader to the South, triggering a nuclear crisis involving both Koreas
2017	V.I.P.	A political thriller about a North Korean defector and serial killer protected by intelligence agencies, revealing the moral corruption and power politics shared by both Koreas
2018	The Spy Gone North	Based on a true story, it follows a South Korean agent who infiltrates North Korea in the mid-1990s to collect intelligence on its nuclear program, exposing the complex entanglement of inter-Korean politics and espionage
2018	PMC: The Bunker	An action film about a South Korean mercenary who, caught in a conspiracy, teams up and bonds with a North Korean military doctor to rescue the country’s leader
2019	Battle of Jangsari	True story of teenage volunteers sacrificing themselves to save the Incheon Landing operation
2019	Ashfall	An apocalyptic eruption of Mount Baekdu on the inter-Korean border triggers a joint task force mission
2020	Steel Rain 2	During a peace summit, the leaders of South Korea, North Korea, and the United States are kidnapped aboard a submarine, triggering a nuclear crisis that tests fragile inter-Korean diplomacy
2021	Escape from Mogadishu	South and North Korean diplomats try to flee war-torn Somalia, blending rivalry with shared identity
2022	Hunt	Set in the early 1980s, it follows rival intelligence agents tracking a North Korean spy amid Korea’s military dictatorship
2022	Confidential Assignment 2	A Seoul-set buddy-cop sequel pairing North and South Korean detectives, built on dialect humor and inter-Korean tension

By contrast, Netflix films treat inter-Korean relations as a generic backdrop for action rather than exploring their complex nuances. Carter (2022) exemplifies this approach – while set in a North–South Korean context, it lacks the emotional depth typical of traditional inter-Korean narratives. Carter’s drone sequences use computer-generated environments and sweeping aerial shots that prioritize global spectacle over geographical specificity. Characters operate within generic spy frameworks using identities like ‘CIA agent’ and ‘Michael Bane’ rather than being grounded in specifically Korean contexts, reducing Korea’s fraught history to a modular backdrop for spectacle. In other words, Carter abstracts ‘division’ into a detachable genre token, exemplifying Netflix’s tendency to translate local politics into globally legible action imagery. Seoul Vibe (2022) further illustrates this pattern. Despite its pre-Olympic 1988 setting, the film’s mise-en-scène features neon signage, graffiti motifs, and American punk fashion in electric cyan, hot pink, and violet – repackaging Korea’s historical moment as global street chic. The economic boom and turbulent politics of late-1980s Korea surface only as fleeting background text, treating historical time and place as a lifestyle brand plugged into a globally recognizable action template.

Discussion: Global platforms as a new enabler and constrainer

Since the early 21st century, when U.S. trade pressure led to market liberalization and screen quota reductions, the Korean film industry has sought to maintain its market share against Hollywood by developing hybrid genres and locally grounded narratives. This resilience has driven industrial growth and now underpins Korea’s strong performance on Netflix. Korean productions comprised seven of the platform’s ten most-watched films in 2022, nine in 2023, and all ten in 2024, including both originals and licensed titles on Netflix's Korean library (FlixPatrol, n.d). Yet in the global streaming environment, the critical question beneath this quantitative dominance is how Netflix affects the diversity of producers and content. While global streaming platforms have lowered export barriers for K-content, these same dynamics may also constrain the industry’s long-term growth (Lim, 2024). Notably, Netflix strengthened its dominance in Korea during a period when market conditions favored its expansion. In the post-COVID-19 era, an oversupply of films and dramas – many unreleased – has coincided with declining investment (see Figure 3 and Table 4). Despite recording over 100 million theater admissions in 2022, more than twice the national population, analysts have warned of challenges for domestic filmmakers. Rising ticket prices and the growth of OTT platforms have made audiences more selective, while shorter holdback periods have accelerated the shift to streaming (Korean Film Council, 2024). Although production volume has increased since 2019, about 70 to 80 completed films remained unreleased by 2023 (Lee, 2023). Increasing costs have widened disparities among producers, and profitability fell from 18.0% in 2017 to −22.9% in 2021. By 2023, box office revenue had recovered to around two-thirds of 2019 levels (65.9%), while admissions reached about half (55.2%). Korean titles performed even worse, with revenue at 61.9% and theater attendance at 52.5% of 2019 levels (Korean Film Council, 2024: 36).

Figure 3.

Theater revenue and over-production trends. Source: Korean Film Council (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024). Created by the author.

Table 4.

Over-production trends. Source: Korean Film Council 2021–2024. Compiled by the author.

Production/Release ratio	2020	2021	2022	2023
Production	807	804	817	787
Release	615	653	703	608
Production vs release rate (%)	131.2	123.1	116.2	129.4

As theatrical releases face growing challenges, Netflix has become nearly essential for local filmmakers seeking funding and revenue, making collaboration with the platform increasingly necessary amid the film industry’s contraction (Baek, 2025). In this context, Netflix’s dominance has become central to concerns about not only source diversity but also production practices. A notable example is the rise in actor fees driven by Netflix, often beyond the limits of local budgets; the platform has effectively absorbed leading talent and marginalized domestic competitors (Lee, 2024). These shifts unfold within an unequal power relationship between Korean companies and the global platform. Netflix reportedly exploits Korea’s cost-efficient production system, obtaining high-quality content at only 10 to 30% of U.S. costs while retaining full intellectual property rights (E. Kim, 2023). As a result, Korean filmmakers risk being reduced to subcontractors without residual profit sharing, and unlike their American counterparts, they receive no residual payments under current copyright law (Rah, 2023). A notable case is Space Sweepers (2021), sold to Netflix for its production cost plus a 30% margin after missing a theatrical release during the pandemic. Although it ranked first in 26 countries, all ancillary rights were transferred to Netflix, leaving producers with no secondary revenue (Yeon, 2021). More notably, Squid Game (2021) exemplifies this imbalance, reportedly generating nearly $900 million for Netflix (Shaw, 2021), while the platform retained exclusive ownership of all intellectual property rights.

Shifting focus to content diversity, this study’s comparison of Netflix and Korean theatrical films suggests that Netflix’s promotional rhetoric on ‘global diversity’ has not substantially enhanced content diversity within the Korean film industry, although it may have positively influenced creative-role diversity and expanded genre categories by introducing previously underexplored forms. While Netflix Originals have introduced genres like sci-fi more noticeably, overall genre diversity shows no clear quantitative shift. This trend has fueled concerns that Korean cinema is increasingly defined by Hollywood-style genre productions (J. Kim, 2024). Beyond quantitative measures, this study reveals qualitative differences in how local specificity functions narratively. Netflix Originals often embed local elements within familiar Hollywood frameworks, while Korean theatrical films integrate locality as a vital narrative component. This distinction underscores the need to critically assess Netflix’s ‘branded diversity’, which prioritizes global marketability over cultural specificity (Asmar et al., 2023).

Conclusion

This study’s findings can be summarized in three key points. First, concerning source diversity, Netflix exhibits capital intensification, with a significant portion of Korean original titles produced by large, corporate-affiliated entities. Yet this pattern is not entirely new; it reflects the long-standing concentration of capital in Korea’s film industry, where a few dominant distributors control the majority of the market. Second, regarding creative-role diversity, Netflix Originals show no recurring involvement of writers or directors, unlike traditional Korean films, which more visibly rely on established creative personnel. Although both Netflix and Korean theatrical films exhibit some degree of actor overlap, the latter shows a stronger reliance on star power, with several performers appearing repeatedly in top-grossing titles. While traditional cinema reflects path dependency through recurring directors and writers, Netflix demonstrates no comparable continuity. This suggests Netflix may create opportunities for some creators, potentially increasing diversity in creative roles. Third, in terms of content diversity, traditional Korean cinema presents a more balanced distribution across genres, while Netflix original films concentrate on action, with a notable emphasis on crime and thriller genres. Although Netflix explores less conventional genres like science fiction, Korean theatrical films span a wider range, including fantasy, mystery, horror, and biographical narratives. Netflix’s lower genre diversity index reflects both higher proportions of specific genres such as action, crime, and thriller, and a higher proportion of 18+ content. Beyond genre distribution, this study also highlights differences in textual hybridity within Korean action films. Korean theatrical releases often foreground inter-Korean themes or historical contexts that emphasize emotional bonds, while Netflix titles such as Carter and Seoul Vibe employ these same settings as stylish backdrops within universal narrative frameworks.

These findings, however, must be considered alongside several limitations. First, the scope of the film sample is limited; the relatively small number of Netflix Korean film originals calls for longitudinal observation. This is particularly relevant to the platform’s impact on the actor market, which remains open to varied interpretations. Second, while this study employs genre proportions to identify overall genre trends, genre classification remains an inherently subjective process, constituting a fundamental limitation. Third, the increasingly blurred boundaries between television and film – despite their distinct revenue models and transnational circulation patterns – necessitate a more nuanced analytical framework. Future research should address both medium convergence and the contextual variability of production environments, employing more diverse methodological tools to capture the complex dynamics of the platform economy. Despite these limitations, this analysis demonstrates that Netflix’s expansion into Korean film production challenges prevailing assumptions about global platform diversity, offering insights for future research on the cultural impact of streaming services.

Footnotes

ORCID iD

Woochul Kim

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research,authorship,and/or publication of this article.

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research,authorship,and/or publication of this article.

Notes

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Reconfiguring the global–local nexus: A comparative analysis of Netflix and theatrical film diversity in South Korea