Hyun Bin and Kim Soo Hyun Leads the List of Highest Paid K-actor Drama Salaries

It was interesting to get a glimpse at the drama salaries of the top Korean actresses, and now it’s time to see how their male counterparts are faring. There is total gender income at the very top as Lee Young Ae and Jeon Ji Hyun both earn 100 million won per drama episode, and the same is true for top earners Hyun Bin and Kim Soo Hyun as each also commands a salary of 100 million won per drama episode. Nice moolah.

After the top two then the male actor side goes on to out earn the actresses, as the next two after Kim Soo Hyun and Hyun Bin are Jo In Sung and So Ji Sub, and each earns a cool 80 million won per drama episode. Rounding out the top three earning brackets are Yoo Ah In, Lee Min Ho, and Lee Seung Gi, each gets paid 70 million won per drama episode. Check out the full list below.

100 million won per episode – Kim Soo Hyun, Hyun Bin

80 million won per episode – So Ji Sub, Jo In Sung

70 million won per episode – Yoo Ah In, Lee Min Ho, Lee Seung Gi

60 million won per episode – Song Joong Ki, Lee Jong Seok

50 million won per episode – Kim Woo Bin, Joo Won, Ji Chang Wook

10 million won per episode – Park Hyung Sik, Yook Sung Jae, Lee Joon


Comments

Hyun Bin and Kim Soo Hyun Leads the List of Highest Paid K-actor Drama Salaries — 40 Comments

  1. This list is already been proven wrong by knets. Lee Minho got 100 million for City Hunter. For Heirs he got around 150 million. Kim Soohyun probably around 200 million.

    • If they paid that much then the drama wouldn’t be able to make any profit. There’s a limit for ad/ppl allowed in each drama, and exports would barely make up for that big salary. I think 1mil won per episode is the cap.

      The Faith couldn’t make its budget back and they still owe money to the workers, you think Lee Minho’s price went up after that to the point that they contracted him at 150mil won per episode for Heirs?

    • As a k-minoz I have to refute your comment.
      The payment Lee Min Ho received for CH has never been revealed. And I have never seen anywhere that he got 150 million for Heirs. Most Korean actors don’t reveal their salaries for TV shows. There was a news article that showed Lee Min Ho along with HB and JDG was paid more than 100 million per episode. According to the article, it was revealed by a congressman at a parliamentary inspection last year.
      Therefore, we just got to know that he was paid at least 100 million for Heirs.
      I’d like to ask you not to spread uncertain claim about his payment without verified grounds.

  2. the list has already been proven wrong.KWB,JCW and JW dont receive that amount.ever since CH,LMH has been receiving 100W per ep.and CJW and KWB definately does not receive that amount.it’s impossible.the only accurate ones that knet agree with are LJS and KSH cos their dramas has always been HITS.

  3. A lot of other top actors/actresses received around 50000 per-episode, but they prefer not to reveal it-the name listed are exclusively done for media play by their agencies.

  4. Isn’t 200 mill won around 170k dollars? Why do they keep saying actors do not get payed properly then? There are some Hollywood actors who don’t get that much money/ep. For example if you work for the CW you’ll be lucky if you get 70k/ep, but in Korea there are actors who even get $170k? Now I understand why they don’t mind the live shooting. There’s big bucks coming after of all the torture.

      • I’m very well aware of the fact that not everyone gets that money in Korea, but following your point, not everyone gets 1 mill dollars per episode in Hollywood either. I was just pointing out how there are actors in a small country like Korea who get more money than actors from a country that’s one of the largest world economies. And I was surprised by it considering how I always hear rumors about how east asian actors always overwork and get paid next to nothing.

      • @lila I don’t get your point. SK is a small country but its one of the G20 and its economy has a big chunk based on the entertainment buisness. For my part, I am actually surprised at how much a discrepancy there is between the salary of the top k-actors than american actors and c-actors. Their salaries are about the 1/10 of the US and China equivalent. And yes ‘they get more money than actors from US’ but you can’t compare A grade actors with C grade actors.

    • As I mentioned in the earlier post on the actresses’ salaries, it is misleading to always read of actors/actresses being paid these much because the fees also include salaries of their management team and/or agencies’ cut.

      So unless you can show that the basis for comparison is the same, then it is groundless to state that Korean actors are being better paid than Hollywood ones just based on the reports.

    • LMAO right. OP – female hormone and its readers – bunch of female hormones. No difference than that of kpop forums and its dumb teenager girls.

  5. No matter this list is true or not but it was suprising that how much k-netizen were displeased by hyun bin, kim woo bin and lee sungi’s salaries and called them bubbles!!!!

  6. 90% data published by Korean media are false, they know fangirls young or old easy to be manipulated and they enjoy seeing it.

  7. After seeing the supposedly top 4 highest paid actors, the only thing that came to my mind was that Gong Hyo-jin should act opposite Hyun Bin in her next drama because she already did dramas with the other three.

  8. Duo Bali ( Memories of Bali ) get same paid…what a coincidence. Another case, if this article is true then i’ll be sad for Joo won, how come someone like him who is considering as King of Drama Ratings get low paid than Lee jong suk or Lee min ho…he’s deserved to joins in 70 millions group !!

  9. not sure if this list is true or not but what about lee jun ki? he isn’t even mentioned here..same with ji sung

    and it’s funny yook sung jae is here supposedly getting 10 million won and nam joo hyuk who was the actual lead in school 2015 is not here..does that mean YSJ got higher pay even though he was second lead? or it is his pay for his new drama…lol

  10. Joowon will definitely get higher after yongpal.. yoo ah in? really?? his drama didnt really make it, but his movie yes..

    wow.. how about jisung? song seung hun?

    but ji chang wook deserves it tho!

    KIM SOO HYUN is the most deserve one!

  11. No complains about this actors but where is lee joon GI !!?? Like seriously he’s super talented and all his roles are great his works are so successful he won lots of awards he seriously must be in top of the list because he didn’t make one good job he’s constantly successful.

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