Park Hyung-Sik, Ma Dong-seok's fees for Twelve comes under scanner after big budget series tanks

This has been a mixed year for Korean dramas. After the big budget When The Stars Gossip, KBS’ Twelve tanked with viewers. The show had huge hype around it as it was the comeback of Ma Dong-seok in the world of Korean dramas. Park Hyung-Sik who had just delivered a global blockbuster with Buried Hearts played the main baddie, Ogwi, a raven. It had 12 episodes but the ratings dipped after a good start. As per Koreaboo, the show ended with a dismal 2.4% rating nationwide.

Huge fees of Ma Dong-seok and Park Hyung-Sik

Given the presence of such big names noone expected Twelve to flop so badly. Some critics said Twelve suffered as much of the budget seemed to be directed towards paying some members of the cast. A report said that Ma Dong-seok received ?500 million KRW (about $361,000 USD) per episode. He filmed eight episodes in all. This took up his total fee to a staggering 40 billion Korean Won (about $28.9 million USD). Korean drama heartthrob Park Hyung Sik made around 400 Million Korean won per episode. His total fee was USD 23.1 million. This is more than Rs 200 crores. Well, we wonder how much the makers of Spirit were ready to pay to bring Ma Dong-seok on board if indeed the talks happened.

What is shocking is that other cast members were paid very poorly in compared to these two. Well-known actors like Seo In Guk, Kang Mina and Lee Joo Bin only came upto USD 722,000K. It is less than one billion Korean won. As per the report, 34% of the budget went in paying the fees of Ma Dong-seok and Park Hyung-Sik. An industry insider said makers had to cut costs in production in the second half of the series. It was inevitable given how much these two allegedly charged for Twelve.