AI Brings Korea’s Struggling Film Industry Hopes and Anxiety

When the pandemic shuttered studios and froze productions in 2020, many filmmakers saw their dreams collapse. But South Korean visual-effects veteran Jang Seong-ho found an unexpected breakthrough. His small studio, Mofac Studios, had been struggling to complete King of Kings, an animated adaptation of Charles Dickens’ The Life of Our Lord. Then, in a twist worthy of cinema, Hollywood stars including Kenneth Branagh, Oscar Isaac, and Uma Thurman lent their voices to the film.

Released in the US around Easter, King of Kings became a phenomenon making it the most successful South Korean film ever released in the world’s largest movie market, surpassing the Oscar-winning Parasite. It grossed $60 million at the American box office and is now on track to surpass $100 million globally by Christmas, not counting streaming deals. Even more stunning, the movie was produced for just $25 million — a fraction of what companies like Walt Disney Co. or Sony Group Corp. typically spend.