Maybe we live inside a Squid Game after all…
One of the biggest,s if not the biggest Netflix hits of all time was Squid Game. The show won six Emmys, was viewed for 1.65 billion viewing hours in its first 28 days, and, now, according to internal Netflix documents obtained by the LA Times, it raised Netflix’s value by $900 million.
Sheesh.
Of course, none of this would be possible without South Korean writer and director Hwang Dong-hyuk, who created the show and has earned the right to see it become a stunning success story. But he has not earned any residuals from this massive win.
According to sources, his contract was written in a way that forfeited all intellectual property rights and received no residuals. According to Hwang, he made some money from the sale and show, but not anymore.
If this show had been on a different channel and not a streamer, Hwang would have been entitled to royalty payments when the show played over and over after its broadcast.
This is one of the core reasons the WGA is on strike right now, and that SAG-AFTRA might follow them soon.
These residual payments used to be how creatives made money. But now, with streamers relying on these massive hits, creatives are cut off from any of the wins that follow.
You could try to blame his contract or the Korean film industry, but it’s Netflix who made sure those provisions were not in there, and it’s why unions in the United States are working to make sure that can never happen again.
Being paid residuals for work that generates massive revenue should become something standard all over the world.
It’s only in the streaming era that this has not happened.
