So apparently, I recently learned, the King Eternal Monarch is pretty much #1 on Netflix in most countries. In fact, it's so popular, people subscribe for Netflix, just to watch it. And its beloved and proclaimed the best TV Show in the world, in every nook and cranny in the internet, twitter, facebook, youtube, and etc... Like you literally can't find any negative information out there on the King, it's that good! (p.s. if you find any out there, its apparently fake news)
BUT, it's not beloved in MDL... and for super fans, it's not enough, they need to have 100% positive ratings for the king... there can be no refuge for critics as long as the super fans police exist...
MDL is confirmed an outlier, the only website that does not rate the king 10/10. And that's where the super fans police comes in...
How does it feel to be an anomaly MDL? I think maybe the king super fans on MDL need to band together to eradicate king MDL comment/review section as the last bastion of negative reviews on the show, by posting more positive reviews, and comments. You can do it guys! I have faith! What you can do is that each of you should make new accounts and write new all 10's reviews. But let me warn you, make sure you don't use the same writing style, use the same words, or post on the same day, try to be a bit more creative and space it out a bit. Good things take time, so i'm confident you super fans can get the King ratings to 9.0 where it belongs, and have 500 positive comments by the end of the year. I have noticed though, that you guys are slacking off past week, so try your best! Jackie believes in you!
Also, FYI for those new commentators here, be careful of what you post here, if it's not 100% positive for the King, the super fans police will come in and charge you with harassment. And you'll get tortured with repetitive diatribe, slapped with faulty logic, bombarded with insults on your IQ, and ham-stringed by misleading facts. Posters and reviewers, be warned! To be honest, i'm not sure if the super fans are the king fans or lee min ho fans.
Saying a show is not universally not liked is light years apart from saying it is beloved globally.Please read…
So your posting that the king is #1 netflix show in multiple countries, and only Kdrama in the top 20 of global netflix isn't you trying to imply it's a globall sensation? Sure, if you say so. I've noticed that you seem to have a history of harassing people, as you are harassing me now. I already said countless times, you got your opinion, and I got mine. Am I not allowed to put my opinion on MDL without super fans such as yourself constantly harassing me? I mean get a life Magnolia Cream, it seems all you want to do is attack people, and lie. LOL
I've already said that you should block me if you dislike my posts, but obviously you don't want to, because you enjoy harassing people from the looks of it.
My numbers are pretty accurate and in context. Myth busted, learn to live with it. I didn't bother further arguing the prime number discussion, because I realized, math is not your strong suit, and you were arguing for the sake of arguing, which is no fun. I get it, you are a stubborn person, but that is your problem, not mine.
According to flix patrol those country list is false. Basically I made a factual post, and your having a hard time discounting it. Must be fun to be wrong all the time. Have a good day, honestly your wasting my time, LOL! But it's fun to see you overreact when your show isn't globally loved. Fun, and tragic actually. Until the actual viewership numbers come out, i'm going to keep thinking the king is a flop. See you in december I guess if you want to prove me wrong so much.
You want to think the king is a hit, go ahead, i'm not stopping you, but I'm also going to my post my opinions, because that is what MDL is all about. If you want sweet hugs, go to twitter, which I have been saying for maybe 4-5 times now.
Look, i'm sorry people in MDL didn't like king, but it's not hated everywhere. Apparently youtube and twitter likes it. And according to you, people are writing fanfic about it. But yeah on MDL, most people didn't like it, that's why there are a lot of negative comments and reviews. But it's beyond my control, those reviews are being written by independent people. You want the fate of king to change on MDL? go ahead and find your friends to make positive comments, that's your prerogative. But as it stands, the king failed massively this year 2020.
I dislike Lee Min-ho... Whenever I see his face I want to vomit... But to say that recognition in Hollywood provides…
Well yes, in most real estate markets, there will be people who benefit and those who do not. And homeowners benefited greatly from the entrants of Mainland Chinese, Russians and Arabs, but it is renters who make up more than 50% of the housing market who were effectively pushed out with higher leases, and dwindling market supply as two of the bigger factors. Also, renters, hoping to one day be home owners had their hopes dashed as the price of real estate outpaced their affordability.
While most properties before the Mainland Chinese invasion in places like SF, Toronto and Vancouver, experienced an increase in value of approximately 2-5% for single detached homes, after the influx of Mainland Chinese, these detached homes were seeing increases of anywhere from 40-100% increases annually. So, people who were hoping to buy their first home, were immediately priced out of the market.
But what you said about HK is true, and that's the reason I feel if the market of real estate in SF, Toronto, and Vancouver were to face an actual crash, there would be high wealth individuals who will just snap out the cheaper real estate, probably a lot of them from Mainland China as well.
China government isn't immune to corruption, the amount of dirty money swirling around China is massive, and fear of death doesn't stop people in China from doing unspeakable things, and they use HK as their safe haven, since currently you can't extradite criminals who hide in HK.
I've spoken with older people in HK, and it's mostly the young who are protesting, the older people are content to go about their day to day lives. Also LOL, why they hate for HK, it's not that bad a city.
I dislike Lee Min-ho... Whenever I see his face I want to vomit... But to say that recognition in Hollywood provides…
The Occupy movement a few years back, although it started because of income inequality, started to morph into housing inequality in other parts of the western world. People would protest the increasing price of leased and purchased real estate, and most of the blame was laid against the Mainland Chinese. And unfortunately for non mainlanders, white people think all asians look alike, so the hatred/racism was directed towards all asians who grew up in US/Canada. You just don't hear much of it on the news, because Asians, as I've mentioned are not ones to start a riot or such when living in western countries. The reason for this, as I said, i'm not sure why, when they are pretty aggressive in their home countries. Have you seen taiwanese politics on youtube?
In fairness to the protesters though, the rentals/housing cost of HK has really skyrocketed to crazy prices, and homelessness in HK has been on a steep rise. The thing is, people from HK thinks the current administration are already trained China puppets that are already controlling HK and limiting freedoms behind the scenes. This is not the cultural revolution part 2, but there have been some movement from Chinese government in stamping out some of HK identity. Like the inclusion of Mandarin as a necessary language in HK. Did you know majority of HK before are illiterate in Mandarin? But now, it's being forced for them to learn them to survive in the new HK. And I guess they are worried that they may eventually lose this language and thus their culture.
This, I believe is a viable concern, since in Taiwan, this is already happening, with a lot of the younger generation forgetting ore refusing to speak Hokkien, one of their mother tongues.
Hmm interesting, i've always thought that the biggest immigrant group to UK were Indians, are there a lot of HK people there? Not familiar about HK-UK relationships, so always interesting to learn.
Yes, I am aware of the original source of Mulan. But I prefer the Disney version, with the songs, life lessons, female empowerment, and Mushu. Like I said, the live action version, will most likely try to be accurate to the original source material, and some parts of the disney movie, but for me it would have lost a lot of the magic which made the Disney version magical. I'll still watch it though, and hopefully it's at least a good movie.
I dislike Lee Min-ho... Whenever I see his face I want to vomit... But to say that recognition in Hollywood provides…
That kind of prejudice I believe goes for the Japanese and Mainland Chinese as well. I mean the Walmart in China sell alligators and other exotic things. Lest we forget their wet market was selling bat soup, where the Covid-19 was said to come, I don't think that thinking is limited to Cantonese people. I'm not familiar with how cantonese in HK think, so I can't really comment on that, but that's definitely not the case for Cantonese in North America.
I think the ongoing sentiment is that HK prefer GB over China as their colonist. I guess better to be insulted to your face, than to be stripped of your freedom behind your back.
Oh yeah, I totally agree with you regarding the HK protest, they pretty much indirectly placed China in a good light. I mean the china government has all these videos full of them showing restraint, and helping clean HK and etc... while there is all these videos maliciousness from the HK people. Although, I have to say, most of these protesters are the younger crowd. When I heard from that some of these protesters, quit their job to protest, I just had to shake my head.
I have nothing against the younger generation, but sometimes their logic is horrible. They keep flouting to want their independence, but love to play the victim/blame card all the time, and in the end, it's the older generation that has to be the grown up in the room and salvage the chaos the younger create.
Well, the mainland Chinese have an unfair advantage in the real estate game, I know because I am a realtor. They bring in, mostly dirty money, and use North America's casino and real estate as their personal laundry machine to clean the money. In fact they've published articles on the amount being laundered every year, and they are in the Billions. And this is just the ones they are able to catch, since North America in general has very lax disclosure rules.
Add to that that these Mainland Chinese are bringing in their mentality of a billion to these cities, and yeah they are definitely driving prices out, and driving local, hard working people out. There are even stories of the father of a family in jail, but he is able to send his family with the dirty money to san fransciso, toronto, and vancouver as the biggest offending cities. Plus when it comes to price bidding, it get's really unscrupulous. So the HK people who are protesting the rising property prices have a legitimate beef. Because there is far more real estate corruption happening in HK compared to those North American cities.
Crazy Rich Asians, had a female main lead did it not?, and she was the one the audience was rooting for. For me, there's been plenty of movies where there was female main leads, but yes, asian female heroes not so much. The TV series Nikita, also had Maggie Q as the main lead and hero, although understandably, she's half. What I meant, is that when it comes to new shows, when they fill up their diversity quota, Asians, specifically Chinese are always last to get filled, so you'll see many TV shows and movies have their blacks and LGBTQ, and not much else after that. I would put the diversity quota rankings like this.
1. Black 2. Latino 3. LGBTQ 4. European 5. Indian 6. Korean 7. Filipino 8. Chinese/Taiwanese/Vietnamese
Also, i'm kinda bummed a lot of what made Mulan one of my favorite movies will be taken out from the live action, like the dragon, the songs, and the romance between captain and Mulan. Having a romance between same level coworkers is not the same as the boss and an employee, it's a different dynamic IMO.
I mean Aladdin changed a few things, but overall it was accurate to the source material.
I dislike Lee Min-ho... Whenever I see his face I want to vomit... But to say that recognition in Hollywood provides…
I can't comment on Korea or Hong Kong, but calling them the "white man's dog", that kinda sounds quite insulting. So maybe refrain from that kind of language on here.
My point in parasite is that, if parasite had won every single available asian awards, people globally still probably would not have cared about it, but when it wins an oscar, suddenly people are talking about it and watching it. As much as you disagree with the western film associations being the epitome of film excellence, a majority of the world subscribes to this.
Unfortunately for HK, as much as they want to retain their independence, the world has moved past them. HK is still a financial hub, but every passing year it get's less and less. A lot of people already consider Shanghai the financial hub in that area. And as much animosity there is between US and China, US isn't going to poke the bear on some human rights issue, when they are already locking horns on a bitter trade war. So yeah HK is pretty much on their own here.
After speaking to some HK people, even before the handover, there's a lot of animosity towards mainland China, which has increased and peaked in the past 10 years or so. But the reality of things is, HK is very dependent on China for a lot of it's food, services, and etc... In fact, at this point China does not really need HK, it has survive very very well without HK, and it can continue living without it. But in China's mind, well HK is part of China, so i'm going to take it. HK on the other hand are very proud of their individuality, democracy, and lifestyle, which they feel is endanger from China.
That's the thing though, money can only buy so much. Like China can outspend Hollywood by a ratio of 1:10, hire the best actors, best production budget and etc... and it still would not be on par with western films in terms of global appeal. Let's take for example this show The King Eternal Monarch has a production cost of maybe $30 million, while Money Heist, a much more popular show has a production value of $10 Million/season. Shows from certain countries just have more global appeal, and it has nothing to do with how much money you are spending.
Like the discussion here is global success, and HK, T, J,Kdramas appeal are all limited to Asia. Another reason for that is that the dramas tend to be very culturally dependent. Like some westerners may have a hard time understanding the ultra conservatism shown in these dramas. While westernized dramas, even though they can be highly sexualized, like game of thrones, is beloved globally, even in China, although they may have censored and edited it heavily.
Before we judge Mulan, let's watch it first, it's not out yet AFAIK. Also them going away from the what made live action versions of Aladin, and Beauty and the Beast, will be their downfall. I've seen the trailer, it's just another Chinese dynasty era fighting biopic that already exist in many many iterations. What would have made it a disney classic if they just included th original songs, but since the songs were perceived sexist, they are not. That's going to be their big mistake. If i wanted to watch a good movie with the same themes as Mulan Live action, I would rather watch the movie Hero by Jet Li, which has a lot of artistic touches as well.
How exactly is Mulan the big difference of asian representation in hollywood? It's a mostly asian cast, because it's suppose to be in old time China. If this was a wartime film in let's say world war 2 or what not, using asian actors, then you'd have a point. The reason disney could not cast foreign or white actors for Mulan is because there has already been so much online backlash about boycotts if they did that. People were so afraid that they would find a non-asian actress to play mulan. Just because they chose a chinese actress to do so, doesn't suddenly make Mulan barrier breaking, because it's a bare minimum for a supposedly chinese historical film.
Well, racism is deeply rooted in asian culture. Some of it is because of wars, some of them due to something as small as skin color. If half blacks people think it's hard to be a halfie in America, they obviously have not been a halfie in Asia, where you are treated pretty poorly.
I personally get offended by the racist stereotype that asians look alike and etc... or the typecast that we are all good at math, or have slanted eyes and etc... But, I find asians in general, and I don't know why, are much better at dealing with abuse/inequality than other cultures. Like asians are horribly, represented in Hollywood, considering that they represent a big minority in the US, but you don't hear much complaints.
I've seen so many videos of racism against asians, and for the most part, they just sometimes apologize, and walk away, or say something quick then walk away. Compare that to the videos of black and white people whaling at each other or worst. I don't know what in the DNA of asians make them this way.
I dislike Lee Min-ho... Whenever I see his face I want to vomit... But to say that recognition in Hollywood provides…
To be honest, being a big star in your own country, should really be enough, but for some reason, most fans, and maybe the actors themselves attribute hollywood as the next level up. Look at son ye jin getting her first hollywood film soon, people make a huge deal out of it because it's hollywood, regardless of the role is good or not. I mean look at parasite, everyone is making a big deal out of it. If parasite had won every single awards in Asia, nobody cares, but it wins multiple awards in Oscars? and now everyone talking about it, and declaring it a masterpiece.
Another analogy is singers. There are singers in Asia, like faye wong or other huge canto pop, kpop, jpop singers and etc... who have sheer amount of fans in Asia. But if you compare them to any huge western singers, they just pale in comparison. Even bands like BTS understands it's not enough to be popular in Asia, you need to hit global status, which is why they are trying their best to appeal to the broader global scale. Like look at their collaboration with Halsey is the right step. As their brand get's bigger, they will probably do more collab with american/british singers, increasing their global reach. Check out the BTS/Halsey Collab, it's quite catchy.
Also if you read my stats, Asian dramas are being watched at most 4% in the western world according to flix patrol. So the global reach of these Asian stars is really quite minor outside of Asia. And if they are satisfied with being a big thing in Asia, then that's fine, but then they will be tagged with the moniker "Big Time Asian Star".
Unless, I wake up tomorrow, and I see that the MBC Awards, Golden Bear Awards, Baeksangs and etc... is the gold standard in Film excellence, most people will still consider Palmes and Oscar as the top film awards, and that's just human mentality. Just like how everyone in the world consider NBA the best basketball league, and you can argue mayebt he CBA In China has more local fans, but it doesn't matter, it's all about the worlds perception that guides other people's perception.
I'm not so familiar with chinese actors, but is chow yun fat really a bigger star than jackie chan? Like I rarely hear chow yun fat's name, but I hear jackie chan's name everywhere, he's pretty much a global household name.
To use the tag global or international star, it really needs to literally be global. If your just trending in Asia, then your a top Asian star. Using your theory, a star that is only known in china, and has a billion fans, outweighs a star that has only 200 million fans, but in every single country in the world? So, with the same line of thinking, the bollywood stars are bigger stars than hollywood, since they have so many fans in India, let's just ignore how many countries these actors are actually reaching... because number of fans are the true metric, who cares how many countries their fandom actually reaches, right?
And also, an athlete who excels at the ASEAN games is a bigger star and more skilled/legitimate than any international athlete, since you know, more population, and more fans. Since as you say, we only care about the sheer amount of fans.
You know, I've always been fascinated by Japan's entertainment industry. Japan has one of the largest economy in the world still, but for some reason, the production value on their films, in terms of CGI, special effects and etc... is just not on par with hollywood. Why is this the case. China I can't say the same, because the sci-fi stuff China has been pumping out is on par with hollywood films.
And who exactly is underestimating China's financial power? China, the country that just buys what they want, builds hospital in days is in weak financial status? I don't think anyone thinks this. Plus you do know that tencent funds so many movies, and buys rights to tons of hollywood films right? And have you seen all the Hong Kong actors pretty much kowtowing to China? People like Jackie Chan can't say anything bad about China, because China is signing their paychecks. Most HK actors are doing tons of China films now, because China pays more.
When did this become an argument about lee min ho's popularity, we are discussing that the show the king is not a global phenomenon, but rather an Asian one. Even China, lee min ho's biggest fanbase as you say, did not enjoy the show the king, it's rated something low like 7.2 or 7.3/10. And since we are on the topic, have you seen the king? and what did you like about it?
I think in saying Asian, you need to take out China from that equation. Mainland Chinese, definitely do not see white people as gods, in fact Mainland Chinese, especially the richer ones have this superiority complex that you will only see once you start talking to them. Even their government has this mentality. But for the rest of Asia, yeah they have always had this white people are god mentality, and it probably colonial mentality, since most of south east asia became a western colony at some point. And the east asia worship, I cannot explain.
Whoa whoa! Korea and Hong Kong still looking for their identity? Care to clarify this...
Pretty sure Korean actors still care more about their local fans. Even stars like Jackie Chan are still doing tons of movies in China and HK as compared to Hollywood. Plus multi country collaboration is becoming more and more popular now as well.
Yeah sure no problem, just stating some facts to stabilize the comment section here.
As an aside, did you enjoy the ending of BR? I was expecting more, but it was ok.
LOLIt's just not liked on MDL, we are a special case. I value MDL review/comments more than some outside statistics.And…
That's what you said last time, and yet here you are. The show has shortcomings, and i'm just pointing them out. Simple as that. If you want to see a comment section full of love, I hear twitter loves the king, and they could use another you over there. If you want unbiased views, your welcome here in MDL.
Saying a show is not universally not liked is light years apart from saying it is beloved globally.Please read…
Such legit sources...
I did answer that question LOL, go back and read, are you actually reading or just skimming?
Nothing wrong if I want to post about the show, whichever side I represent, that's what comment sections are for. If you think comment section should be full of fluff and adulations, then i'm guessing your not from a democratic country. Because I value freedom of speech.
You can think how you want, that's your right, and I'm going to continually defend the other side. Plus, your being quite defensive, so i'm guessing your getting angry, so maybe go chill and realize, you are arguing with me aggressively over a TV show... Go out, and enjoy the sun! Peace!
"In case you still think local (South Korea) ratings are more important than Netflix, look at these numbers and…
Well, MDL is an international ratings website. So we only represent what international fans feel, and it's not well liked.
Yeah I read those articles, and any article that uses the word, "insiders" is pretty much tabloid level. Haven't you seen entertainment tabloids like The Sun? "A close friend of Meghan Markle says that Harry and William are feuding". "An insider source close to prince William has told The Sun that Meghan Markle is the source of the feud between the brothers"
Also, interesting in that article, the decline in viewership is attributed to excessive PPL. Weren't you just arguing that PPL should not matter? Seems pretty important to korean viewers.
Also.
"Most drama productions still value the local market and want to attract more viewers in their home country," the official said. "We also believe that high quality can bring us more recognition in and out of Korea.
Key word, being most. The article you post pretty much says, production companies don't have much money, and are only funding 60-70% of production cost, meaning 30-40% needs to be covered by excessive PPL, which local koreans and the fans here in MDL do not like. So they are hoping streaming giants like Netflix will handle the production budget. It seems more of an entertainment industry financial health issues than anything else.
If a production companies, properly funds a drama, writes the drama well, and cast the right actors, they can still exceed the 20% mark. But, I guess they prefer making excuses like "well, most shows can't do it, so that's our excuse" But with shows like the world of the married, when the camellia blooms, crash landing on you, itaewon class, hospital playlist, and hot stove league just to name a few, breaking those so called viewership barriers, these anonymous tv executives have nothing else to say.
Imagine being a car salesman, and then saying, "well Tommy only sold 2 cars last month, so me selling just 1 car is not so bad" Yeah, that's kind of defeatist talk, and probably the reason he only sells 1 car a month. A leader, a true production/entertainment monster, doesn't make excuse, they just do.
These standout shows like the shows I mentioned above are not the norm, but they do exist. A lot of people thought the King would bet the same as those shows, but since it's not, the king's fans instead claim, well we don't need local viewership since we have Asia domination. And that's their opinion.
"In case you still think local (South Korea) ratings are more important than Netflix, look at these numbers and…
I like Kim Soo Hyun i'll admit, he's a fantastic actor with a huge acting range.
And, I don't hate the king, actually, I just don't think people should be over hyping and making it seem better than it is. That's all. Like you've claimed it's loved everywhere, so how come you can't let us people in MDL not like it that much? Must you the king fans have it liked in every single website? That's a lofty goal.
What show is garnering 21.683%? You mean crash landing on you?
I know that its okay not to be ok is not performing as well as directors had hoped, I readily admit that. I still think it's a good show, but the domestic crowd didn't think so. But for TVN, it's already performing above average, with your average TVN show being at just over 3%. But yeah, it's not performing as well as it should considering kim soo hyun is starring.
The king on the other hand, faces the same issue, with such a big starring cast, it's just not loved domestically. And you can argue that domestic metrics don't matter anymore until your blue, it does not make it true, since you are not in the TV executives shoes, and can only use an article to prove your point. But logically it doesn't make sense for them to think that domestic viewership isn't important or a key metric anymore.
Unless you can logically show how you arrived at that answer, I don't think it will hold much water.
Until, you see start seeing more Kdrama being dubbed in English like Money Heist, Kdrama will still be produced mainly for local audience, where viewership is important, and if it succeeds in Asia, great, if not, that's also ok, since local viewership is what's key.
LOLIt's just not liked on MDL, we are a special case. I value MDL review/comments more than some outside statistics.And…
You mean the corny banter between the leads is suppose to replace actual chemistry? Ummm, ok sure thing!
If anything, lee gon, born in absolute power and wealth, just thought tae eul would just fall in line, and be impressed with his wealth, intelligence and status, and just like that fall in love with him. In that sense he, and every single Chaebol in Kdrama are Naive. Just like in Boys over Flower, lee min ho's character had the same thinking. But when faced with a spunky, "i don't care how rich, or who you are suppose to be" girl, they fall in love more, because they have never been questioned like that.
Pretty standard Kdrama romance trope. But if you want to see it as deeper than that, then go ahead. But it's not though.
Saying a show is not universally not liked is light years apart from saying it is beloved globally.Please read…
I just used facts from flix patrol and netflix financial statements.
I tend to gravitate towards comment sections with two conflicting sides, then proceed to choose a side and find factual ways to defend that side, that's all. Plus it seems you want a playmate, and someone to talk to here, so i'll keep you company :)
What's your excuse for doing what your doing?
Bottom line. The king is liked in Asia and not really much outside it. and i was able to use facts to prove it. And like you said, it's maybe not 100% hated, but the love for it, barely extends pass Asia. And one article, in this social climate is not indicative of that truth. Even if one TV executive feels the local market doesn't matter anymore, there are probably 10 more who still think it does. One article does not speak for the majority of TV executives. And that's why I prefer not to quote articles that each have their own agenda, and prefer to do my own research. In this particular point, I use Netflix financials and Flixpatrol.
Myth has been busted.
I am glad though you seem to agree its not globally liked. And I will agree not everyone hates it. Seems like you could not refute my facts, so I guess we are in agreement them.
Some people would have you believe that the king is beloved globally, and almost every single country is watching it. But i'd like to lay down some facts to bust this myth.
Mythbusters: The King Eternal Monarch edition.
According to Netflix's latest financial statement. Their current subscriber count as of June 30, 2020 is 187,903,000 or Approximately 188M subscribers.
The quick Breakdown is as follows.
United States and Canada (UCAN) - 71,437,000 Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) - 60,109,000 Latin America (LATAM) - 35,193,000 Asia-Pacific (APAC) - 21,164,000 Total Subscribers = 187,903,000
A lot of the defenders of the show likes to use flixpatrol to defend the shows popularity globally. So i'll be using the same metric to be fair to them. Flix patrol has a new metric called Netflix Preference, and of particular importance is this stat called Netflix Preference by Region. Simply put, it shows Netflix subscribers preference when watching shows of which country and region. Here are the quick numbers.
European Shows - 22.1% North American Shows - 63% Latin America Shows - 4.5% Asian Shows - 9.6%
Now a quick glance of the more detailed stat shows that in (UCAN), the amount of Asian shows being consumed is at 1.3% for Canada and in the US it's .6%. For the next biggest region for netflix subscribers (EMEA), the numbers are barely higher, with France ranking the highest at 3.5% of consumption.
So hmmm, where are asian shows, which include kdrama, most consumed? The top country consuming Asian dramas is actually Japan at 66.5%, then South Korea at 62.5%, then other countries in Asia like, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and etc...
So if you quickly look at the top 10 countries viewing the king, or had king in their top 10, you'll notice that they are the same Asian countries, where Asian dramas are already being highly watched. What about the other countries like US and Canada, or even Europe? Not in the top 10. What about France? the biggest consumer of Asian media in Europe? Not in the top 10. So basically it's not a 188M subscribers that the King is reaching. It's maybe more like the 21 million in the Asia Pacific region. And out of that 21 million subscribers, how many watched king, we will never know, since it's not clear how many actual subscribers it takes to be top 1 on the Netflix website. But hey, you know what 21M/188M is actually 11.2%, which is not that far from the viewership ratings of the King in the local South Korean domestic Market, the king Averaged 8.4% domestically. But I highly doubt all 21M APAC netflix subscribers watched the King, because it's a top 10 list. So imagine it's a staggered kind of ranking, like American Idol, so top vote getter or top 1 show is probably close to 15-20%. Assuming 20% it's closer to 4M APAC viewers.
With the way some of the fans have been commenting, you'd think that the King was being watched by more than half of the world, this could not be further from the truth. Further research will also show that those countries where the King is ranked high, don't actually have a high subscriber count, with South Korea, ironically being one of the higher subscription count. For example, Thailand, which has the king in it's top 10, actually has less than 1 million Netflix subscriber in 2020. I think Japan may have the highest subscriber count at approximately 3 million subscribers. Other countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Hong Kong and etc... will have much lower counts.
So just based on the limited information available, plus the vague way Netflix factors the top 10 most watched, the actual numbers of watchers for the King, may not even exceed 5 million in Asia, which kind of proves that domestic success is still more important than success in Asia.
So when someone says Jackie Chan is a global star, I believe them, because he is literally known worldwide, and he has hollywood films to increase his legitimacy. When someone tells me Lee min ho or kim go eun are global stars, I am a skeptic, since being a star in Asia, is not the same as being a global star.
So is the king eternal monarch a global phenomenon? According to the facts in flix patrol and netflix financials. No. This myth has been busted. It seems to be popular in Asia though, but how popular we don't know, since that is another myth for another day.
Bonus Factoid:
Is Netflix a TV killer in South Korea?
To answer this question, we need to look at a country where Netflix is an actual TV killer. The best example of this is US. In the Us, there 119 Million TV households being monitored. In South Korea, the number is closer to 21 Million TV households. We know in the UCAN there are approx 71M subscribers, and I know from other source that 6M of that is in Canada. So that leaves US with 65M subscribers for 2020. With a TV viewing population of 119M, 65M accounts for approx 54% of the viewing population. That is massive, that more than 1 our of every 2 american tv household is a Netflix subscriber.
How about Korea? According to a Korea Herald article, the number of Netflix subscribers in South Korea is at 2 million. With 21 Million TV households, this accounts to a 9.5% market share for Netflix. Not exactly a TV killer in South Korea as compared to the US, but Netflix participation in APAC is quite new, and is likely to increase gradually in the succeeding years.
Source: Flixpatrol, Netflix financial statement ending June 30, 2020 (available online), Neilsens Korea and US, Google, and last but not the least, a Calculator.
"In case you still think local (South Korea) ratings are more important than Netflix, look at these numbers and…
SK only has 2 million netflix subscribers, also netflix keeps all the info on viewers private and confidential, so you'll just have to take their word for it. So I don't think its a good representation. But the Nelsen ratings, which are publicly available, show out of the 21 M possible viewers, only roughly 8% viewed it. So that's not a great number, considering those other shows on your list, breached the 10% barrier quite easily, with some of them going as high as 20+%.
Fact of the matter is, you don't know the actual numbers, your just guessing and making assumptions.
First off, you have to ask, was King available to every single one of those 193M subscribers? Are those 193M unique subscribers? How does the ranking of top watched in netflix get calculated? Does the top 1 most viewed equate to 100% of all subscriber accounts? Since none of this info is available publically, you can just assume as much as you want, and it would not matter, but to make yourself feel good I guess?
And I'm sorry, but Kdrama is nowhere near the level of Kpop. Most people in the US knows Blackpink and BTS, but ask them who lee min ho, kim go eun, or kim eun sook is, and they will scratch their head. And local advertisers are banking on domestic audience to push their ads. Do you really think they are making ads for BBQ olive chicken for the international audience? For advertisers, they value the 21M koreans, than the193M netflix accounts as you claim.
As for the ratings of backstreet rookie and it's ok not to be ok, i'm glad you brought those up, backstreet rookie is mired in it's own controversy regarding pedophilia, sexual abuse, and racism. And a lot of people disliked it as well, and the rating is as bad as the king. As for it's ok not to be ok, it's on TVN so the lower ratings are not bad for TVN already, but of course it could have been much better, here is the blurb from wikepedia.
This drama airs on a cable channel/pay TV which normally has a relatively smaller audience compared to free-to-air TV/public broadcasters (KBS, SBS, MBC and EBS).
As for Netflix, it belongs to a group of media streaming platforms coined OTT in SK. And the whole OTT subscription service includes youtube, wavve and other smaller streaming programs. And those amount to roughly 5-6M subscribers. So it's a nice big chunk, but still doesn't compare to terrestrial reach, which is 21 Million.
You argue that cable TV is taking away ratings from local broadcaster, but one of the shows on your list Hot Stove League's finale was top at 20%. And it's on SBS. Another local show, when the camellia blooms finale was at 20+% as well. So if a show is good, it will still perform, regardless if it's on cable or public TV. King just wasn't that good of a performer. And of course streaming services takes away from public TV, that's their main goal, but in Korea, that's still very very far form happening. US has 75M netflix subscribers, and the king was not the most watched show in US i'm sure. So out of that 193M netflix subscribers you claim, take away 75M of that. If I do further research, your 193M netflix subscribers will just keep on going down i'm sure.
King and it's ok not to be ok, is good for the industry in the sense that big name stars will be more willing to accept cable TV contract, which will boost subscriptions for TVN, JTBC and etc... But in the end, domestic success still trumps international success.
Actually, you've convinced me to dig into the numbers. Give me some time, and i'll post a comprehensive post as a solo comment. Math is fun!
LOLIt's just not liked on MDL, we are a special case. I value MDL review/comments more than some outside statistics.And…
Exactly which humor is sophisticated and goes over your typical MDL viewer? I'd love to see which jokes were too smart for me...
Why is eun take a zero? I don't understand?
The bickering? exactly what about it was sophisticated? Seems pretty common Kdrama trope of both ML and FL bickering until they fall in love. Not just kdrama, western show also subscribe to this formula. Just wondering how it was different from what has already been done before?
I've heard a lot of issues with their chemistry, is it still worth the watch? Thanks!
The chemistry is rushed, and is not really there. But you may see it differently, but a lot on MDL didn't see it. The reviews/comments you see here represent the majority of people. Of course there will be cases where the majority doesn't necessarily reflect your own viewing experience, so you should give the first few episodes a try. But if you don't feel the chemistry early on, trust me, it doesn't get better.
If your a fan of both actors, then maybe you'll see it. Most people took issue of the portrayal of Kim go euns character as a tough as nail cop, that blubbers and cries every time she sees the main lead. And since the chemistry is rarely felt early on, a lot of people found it ridiculous that the character would cry every single time.
Add to that all the super corny lines fed by the main lead, and the fact every time the main couple met, they did a running hug, almost every single time. The romance portion got pretty old pretty quick.
BUT, it's not beloved in MDL... and for super fans, it's not enough, they need to have 100% positive ratings for the king... there can be no refuge for critics as long as the super fans police exist...
MDL is confirmed an outlier, the only website that does not rate the king 10/10. And that's where the super fans police comes in...
How does it feel to be an anomaly MDL? I think maybe the king super fans on MDL need to band together to eradicate king MDL comment/review section as the last bastion of negative reviews on the show, by posting more positive reviews, and comments. You can do it guys! I have faith! What you can do is that each of you should make new accounts and write new all 10's reviews. But let me warn you, make sure you don't use the same writing style, use the same words, or post on the same day, try to be a bit more creative and space it out a bit. Good things take time, so i'm confident you super fans can get the King ratings to 9.0 where it belongs, and have 500 positive comments by the end of the year. I have noticed though, that you guys are slacking off past week, so try your best! Jackie believes in you!
Also, FYI for those new commentators here, be careful of what you post here, if it's not 100% positive for the King, the super fans police will come in and charge you with harassment. And you'll get tortured with repetitive diatribe, slapped with faulty logic, bombarded with insults on your IQ, and ham-stringed by misleading facts. Posters and reviewers, be warned! To be honest, i'm not sure if the super fans are the king fans or lee min ho fans.
I've already said that you should block me if you dislike my posts, but obviously you don't want to, because you enjoy harassing people from the looks of it.
My numbers are pretty accurate and in context. Myth busted, learn to live with it. I didn't bother further arguing the prime number discussion, because I realized, math is not your strong suit, and you were arguing for the sake of arguing, which is no fun. I get it, you are a stubborn person, but that is your problem, not mine.
According to flix patrol those country list is false. Basically I made a factual post, and your having a hard time discounting it. Must be fun to be wrong all the time. Have a good day, honestly your wasting my time, LOL! But it's fun to see you overreact when your show isn't globally loved. Fun, and tragic actually. Until the actual viewership numbers come out, i'm going to keep thinking the king is a flop. See you in december I guess if you want to prove me wrong so much.
You want to think the king is a hit, go ahead, i'm not stopping you, but I'm also going to my post my opinions, because that is what MDL is all about. If you want sweet hugs, go to twitter, which I have been saying for maybe 4-5 times now.
Look, i'm sorry people in MDL didn't like king, but it's not hated everywhere. Apparently youtube and twitter likes it. And according to you, people are writing fanfic about it. But yeah on MDL, most people didn't like it, that's why there are a lot of negative comments and reviews. But it's beyond my control, those reviews are being written by independent people. You want the fate of king to change on MDL? go ahead and find your friends to make positive comments, that's your prerogative. But as it stands, the king failed massively this year 2020.
While most properties before the Mainland Chinese invasion in places like SF, Toronto and Vancouver, experienced an increase in value of approximately 2-5% for single detached homes, after the influx of Mainland Chinese, these detached homes were seeing increases of anywhere from 40-100% increases annually. So, people who were hoping to buy their first home, were immediately priced out of the market.
But what you said about HK is true, and that's the reason I feel if the market of real estate in SF, Toronto, and Vancouver were to face an actual crash, there would be high wealth individuals who will just snap out the cheaper real estate, probably a lot of them from Mainland China as well.
China government isn't immune to corruption, the amount of dirty money swirling around China is massive, and fear of death doesn't stop people in China from doing unspeakable things, and they use HK as their safe haven, since currently you can't extradite criminals who hide in HK.
I've spoken with older people in HK, and it's mostly the young who are protesting, the older people are content to go about their day to day lives. Also LOL, why they hate for HK, it's not that bad a city.
In fairness to the protesters though, the rentals/housing cost of HK has really skyrocketed to crazy prices, and homelessness in HK has been on a steep rise. The thing is, people from HK thinks the current administration are already trained China puppets that are already controlling HK and limiting freedoms behind the scenes. This is not the cultural revolution part 2, but there have been some movement from Chinese government in stamping out some of HK identity. Like the inclusion of Mandarin as a necessary language in HK. Did you know majority of HK before are illiterate in Mandarin? But now, it's being forced for them to learn them to survive in the new HK. And I guess they are worried that they may eventually lose this language and thus their culture.
This, I believe is a viable concern, since in Taiwan, this is already happening, with a lot of the younger generation forgetting ore refusing to speak Hokkien, one of their mother tongues.
Hmm interesting, i've always thought that the biggest immigrant group to UK were Indians, are there a lot of HK people there? Not familiar about HK-UK relationships, so always interesting to learn.
Yes, I am aware of the original source of Mulan. But I prefer the Disney version, with the songs, life lessons, female empowerment, and Mushu. Like I said, the live action version, will most likely try to be accurate to the original source material, and some parts of the disney movie, but for me it would have lost a lot of the magic which made the Disney version magical. I'll still watch it though, and hopefully it's at least a good movie.
I think the ongoing sentiment is that HK prefer GB over China as their colonist. I guess better to be insulted to your face, than to be stripped of your freedom behind your back.
Oh yeah, I totally agree with you regarding the HK protest, they pretty much indirectly placed China in a good light. I mean the china government has all these videos full of them showing restraint, and helping clean HK and etc... while there is all these videos maliciousness from the HK people. Although, I have to say, most of these protesters are the younger crowd. When I heard from that some of these protesters, quit their job to protest, I just had to shake my head.
I have nothing against the younger generation, but sometimes their logic is horrible. They keep flouting to want their independence, but love to play the victim/blame card all the time, and in the end, it's the older generation that has to be the grown up in the room and salvage the chaos the younger create.
Well, the mainland Chinese have an unfair advantage in the real estate game, I know because I am a realtor. They bring in, mostly dirty money, and use North America's casino and real estate as their personal laundry machine to clean the money. In fact they've published articles on the amount being laundered every year, and they are in the Billions. And this is just the ones they are able to catch, since North America in general has very lax disclosure rules.
Add to that that these Mainland Chinese are bringing in their mentality of a billion to these cities, and yeah they are definitely driving prices out, and driving local, hard working people out. There are even stories of the father of a family in jail, but he is able to send his family with the dirty money to san fransciso, toronto, and vancouver as the biggest offending cities. Plus when it comes to price bidding, it get's really unscrupulous. So the HK people who are protesting the rising property prices have a legitimate beef. Because there is far more real estate corruption happening in HK compared to those North American cities.
Crazy Rich Asians, had a female main lead did it not?, and she was the one the audience was rooting for. For me, there's been plenty of movies where there was female main leads, but yes, asian female heroes not so much. The TV series Nikita, also had Maggie Q as the main lead and hero, although understandably, she's half. What I meant, is that when it comes to new shows, when they fill up their diversity quota, Asians, specifically Chinese are always last to get filled, so you'll see many TV shows and movies have their blacks and LGBTQ, and not much else after that. I would put the diversity quota rankings like this.
1. Black
2. Latino
3. LGBTQ
4. European
5. Indian
6. Korean
7. Filipino
8. Chinese/Taiwanese/Vietnamese
Also, i'm kinda bummed a lot of what made Mulan one of my favorite movies will be taken out from the live action, like the dragon, the songs, and the romance between captain and Mulan. Having a romance between same level coworkers is not the same as the boss and an employee, it's a different dynamic IMO.
I mean Aladdin changed a few things, but overall it was accurate to the source material.
My point in parasite is that, if parasite had won every single available asian awards, people globally still probably would not have cared about it, but when it wins an oscar, suddenly people are talking about it and watching it. As much as you disagree with the western film associations being the epitome of film excellence, a majority of the world subscribes to this.
Unfortunately for HK, as much as they want to retain their independence, the world has moved past them. HK is still a financial hub, but every passing year it get's less and less. A lot of people already consider Shanghai the financial hub in that area. And as much animosity there is between US and China, US isn't going to poke the bear on some human rights issue, when they are already locking horns on a bitter trade war. So yeah HK is pretty much on their own here.
After speaking to some HK people, even before the handover, there's a lot of animosity towards mainland China, which has increased and peaked in the past 10 years or so. But the reality of things is, HK is very dependent on China for a lot of it's food, services, and etc... In fact, at this point China does not really need HK, it has survive very very well without HK, and it can continue living without it. But in China's mind, well HK is part of China, so i'm going to take it. HK on the other hand are very proud of their individuality, democracy, and lifestyle, which they feel is endanger from China.
That's the thing though, money can only buy so much. Like China can outspend Hollywood by a ratio of 1:10, hire the best actors, best production budget and etc... and it still would not be on par with western films in terms of global appeal. Let's take for example this show The King Eternal Monarch has a production cost of maybe $30 million, while Money Heist, a much more popular show has a production value of $10 Million/season. Shows from certain countries just have more global appeal, and it has nothing to do with how much money you are spending.
Like the discussion here is global success, and HK, T, J,Kdramas appeal are all limited to Asia. Another reason for that is that the dramas tend to be very culturally dependent. Like some westerners may have a hard time understanding the ultra conservatism shown in these dramas. While westernized dramas, even though they can be highly sexualized, like game of thrones, is beloved globally, even in China, although they may have censored and edited it heavily.
Before we judge Mulan, let's watch it first, it's not out yet AFAIK. Also them going away from the what made live action versions of Aladin, and Beauty and the Beast, will be their downfall. I've seen the trailer, it's just another Chinese dynasty era fighting biopic that already exist in many many iterations. What would have made it a disney classic if they just included th original songs, but since the songs were perceived sexist, they are not. That's going to be their big mistake. If i wanted to watch a good movie with the same themes as Mulan Live action, I would rather watch the movie Hero by Jet Li, which has a lot of artistic touches as well.
How exactly is Mulan the big difference of asian representation in hollywood? It's a mostly asian cast, because it's suppose to be in old time China. If this was a wartime film in let's say world war 2 or what not, using asian actors, then you'd have a point. The reason disney could not cast foreign or white actors for Mulan is because there has already been so much online backlash about boycotts if they did that. People were so afraid that they would find a non-asian actress to play mulan. Just because they chose a chinese actress to do so, doesn't suddenly make Mulan barrier breaking, because it's a bare minimum for a supposedly chinese historical film.
Well, racism is deeply rooted in asian culture. Some of it is because of wars, some of them due to something as small as skin color. If half blacks people think it's hard to be a halfie in America, they obviously have not been a halfie in Asia, where you are treated pretty poorly.
I personally get offended by the racist stereotype that asians look alike and etc... or the typecast that we are all good at math, or have slanted eyes and etc... But, I find asians in general, and I don't know why, are much better at dealing with abuse/inequality than other cultures. Like asians are horribly, represented in Hollywood, considering that they represent a big minority in the US, but you don't hear much complaints.
I've seen so many videos of racism against asians, and for the most part, they just sometimes apologize, and walk away, or say something quick then walk away. Compare that to the videos of black and white people whaling at each other or worst. I don't know what in the DNA of asians make them this way.
Another analogy is singers. There are singers in Asia, like faye wong or other huge canto pop, kpop, jpop singers and etc... who have sheer amount of fans in Asia. But if you compare them to any huge western singers, they just pale in comparison. Even bands like BTS understands it's not enough to be popular in Asia, you need to hit global status, which is why they are trying their best to appeal to the broader global scale. Like look at their collaboration with Halsey is the right step. As their brand get's bigger, they will probably do more collab with american/british singers, increasing their global reach. Check out the BTS/Halsey Collab, it's quite catchy.
Also if you read my stats, Asian dramas are being watched at most 4% in the western world according to flix patrol. So the global reach of these Asian stars is really quite minor outside of Asia. And if they are satisfied with being a big thing in Asia, then that's fine, but then they will be tagged with the moniker "Big Time Asian Star".
Unless, I wake up tomorrow, and I see that the MBC Awards, Golden Bear Awards, Baeksangs and etc... is the gold standard in Film excellence, most people will still consider Palmes and Oscar as the top film awards, and that's just human mentality. Just like how everyone in the world consider NBA the best basketball league, and you can argue mayebt he CBA In China has more local fans, but it doesn't matter, it's all about the worlds perception that guides other people's perception.
I'm not so familiar with chinese actors, but is chow yun fat really a bigger star than jackie chan? Like I rarely hear chow yun fat's name, but I hear jackie chan's name everywhere, he's pretty much a global household name.
To use the tag global or international star, it really needs to literally be global. If your just trending in Asia, then your a top Asian star. Using your theory, a star that is only known in china, and has a billion fans, outweighs a star that has only 200 million fans, but in every single country in the world? So, with the same line of thinking, the bollywood stars are bigger stars than hollywood, since they have so many fans in India, let's just ignore how many countries these actors are actually reaching... because number of fans are the true metric, who cares how many countries their fandom actually reaches, right?
And also, an athlete who excels at the ASEAN games is a bigger star and more skilled/legitimate than any international athlete, since you know, more population, and more fans. Since as you say, we only care about the sheer amount of fans.
You know, I've always been fascinated by Japan's entertainment industry. Japan has one of the largest economy in the world still, but for some reason, the production value on their films, in terms of CGI, special effects and etc... is just not on par with hollywood. Why is this the case. China I can't say the same, because the sci-fi stuff China has been pumping out is on par with hollywood films.
And who exactly is underestimating China's financial power? China, the country that just buys what they want, builds hospital in days is in weak financial status? I don't think anyone thinks this. Plus you do know that tencent funds so many movies, and buys rights to tons of hollywood films right? And have you seen all the Hong Kong actors pretty much kowtowing to China? People like Jackie Chan can't say anything bad about China, because China is signing their paychecks. Most HK actors are doing tons of China films now, because China pays more.
When did this become an argument about lee min ho's popularity, we are discussing that the show the king is not a global phenomenon, but rather an Asian one. Even China, lee min ho's biggest fanbase as you say, did not enjoy the show the king, it's rated something low like 7.2 or 7.3/10. And since we are on the topic, have you seen the king? and what did you like about it?
I think in saying Asian, you need to take out China from that equation. Mainland Chinese, definitely do not see white people as gods, in fact Mainland Chinese, especially the richer ones have this superiority complex that you will only see once you start talking to them. Even their government has this mentality. But for the rest of Asia, yeah they have always had this white people are god mentality, and it probably colonial mentality, since most of south east asia became a western colony at some point. And the east asia worship, I cannot explain.
Whoa whoa! Korea and Hong Kong still looking for their identity? Care to clarify this...
Pretty sure Korean actors still care more about their local fans. Even stars like Jackie Chan are still doing tons of movies in China and HK as compared to Hollywood. Plus multi country collaboration is becoming more and more popular now as well.
Yeah sure no problem, just stating some facts to stabilize the comment section here.
As an aside, did you enjoy the ending of BR? I was expecting more, but it was ok.
I don't see anything wrong with liking ksh.
Seems to me there isnt much admirers of the show, mostly negative reviews, a low rating, and the comment section is generally unfavorable.
Yes. When you say something i don't agree with, i will write. its called a discussion.
If you want everyone to agree with you, go ahead and log on to twitter.
Also, if you don't want to discuss facts. Feel free to block me. That option is available on mdl.
Also your posting on a public forum. So its freedom of speech for people to discuss their opinions, no matter how much it clashes with yours.
I did answer that question LOL, go back and read, are you actually reading or just skimming?
Nothing wrong if I want to post about the show, whichever side I represent, that's what comment sections are for. If you think comment section should be full of fluff and adulations, then i'm guessing your not from a democratic country. Because I value freedom of speech.
You can think how you want, that's your right, and I'm going to continually defend the other side. Plus, your being quite defensive, so i'm guessing your getting angry, so maybe go chill and realize, you are arguing with me aggressively over a TV show... Go out, and enjoy the sun! Peace!
Do what you think is right, don't bother me much. I'm not the one spazzing.
Yeah I read those articles, and any article that uses the word, "insiders" is pretty much tabloid level. Haven't you seen entertainment tabloids like The Sun? "A close friend of Meghan Markle says that Harry and William are feuding". "An insider source close to prince William has told The Sun that Meghan Markle is the source of the feud between the brothers"
Also, interesting in that article, the decline in viewership is attributed to excessive PPL. Weren't you just arguing that PPL should not matter? Seems pretty important to korean viewers.
Also.
"Most drama productions still value the local market and want to attract more viewers in their home country," the official said. "We also believe that high quality can bring us more recognition in and out of Korea.
Key word, being most. The article you post pretty much says, production companies don't have much money, and are only funding 60-70% of production cost, meaning 30-40% needs to be covered by excessive PPL, which local koreans and the fans here in MDL do not like. So they are hoping streaming giants like Netflix will handle the production budget. It seems more of an entertainment industry financial health issues than anything else.
If a production companies, properly funds a drama, writes the drama well, and cast the right actors, they can still exceed the 20% mark. But, I guess they prefer making excuses like "well, most shows can't do it, so that's our excuse" But with shows like the world of the married, when the camellia blooms, crash landing on you, itaewon class, hospital playlist, and hot stove league just to name a few, breaking those so called viewership barriers, these anonymous tv executives have nothing else to say.
Imagine being a car salesman, and then saying, "well Tommy only sold 2 cars last month, so me selling just 1 car is not so bad" Yeah, that's kind of defeatist talk, and probably the reason he only sells 1 car a month. A leader, a true production/entertainment monster, doesn't make excuse, they just do.
These standout shows like the shows I mentioned above are not the norm, but they do exist. A lot of people thought the King would bet the same as those shows, but since it's not, the king's fans instead claim, well we don't need local viewership since we have Asia domination. And that's their opinion.
And, I don't hate the king, actually, I just don't think people should be over hyping and making it seem better than it is. That's all. Like you've claimed it's loved everywhere, so how come you can't let us people in MDL not like it that much? Must you the king fans have it liked in every single website? That's a lofty goal.
What show is garnering 21.683%? You mean crash landing on you?
I know that its okay not to be ok is not performing as well as directors had hoped, I readily admit that. I still think it's a good show, but the domestic crowd didn't think so. But for TVN, it's already performing above average, with your average TVN show being at just over 3%. But yeah, it's not performing as well as it should considering kim soo hyun is starring.
The king on the other hand, faces the same issue, with such a big starring cast, it's just not loved domestically. And you can argue that domestic metrics don't matter anymore until your blue, it does not make it true, since you are not in the TV executives shoes, and can only use an article to prove your point. But logically it doesn't make sense for them to think that domestic viewership isn't important or a key metric anymore.
Unless you can logically show how you arrived at that answer, I don't think it will hold much water.
Until, you see start seeing more Kdrama being dubbed in English like Money Heist, Kdrama will still be produced mainly for local audience, where viewership is important, and if it succeeds in Asia, great, if not, that's also ok, since local viewership is what's key.
If anything, lee gon, born in absolute power and wealth, just thought tae eul would just fall in line, and be impressed with his wealth, intelligence and status, and just like that fall in love with him. In that sense he, and every single Chaebol in Kdrama are Naive. Just like in Boys over Flower, lee min ho's character had the same thinking. But when faced with a spunky, "i don't care how rich, or who you are suppose to be" girl, they fall in love more, because they have never been questioned like that.
Pretty standard Kdrama romance trope. But if you want to see it as deeper than that, then go ahead. But it's not though.
I tend to gravitate towards comment sections with two conflicting sides, then proceed to choose a side and find factual ways to defend that side, that's all. Plus it seems you want a playmate, and someone to talk to here, so i'll keep you company :)
What's your excuse for doing what your doing?
Bottom line. The king is liked in Asia and not really much outside it. and i was able to use facts to prove it. And like you said, it's maybe not 100% hated, but the love for it, barely extends pass Asia. And one article, in this social climate is not indicative of that truth. Even if one TV executive feels the local market doesn't matter anymore, there are probably 10 more who still think it does. One article does not speak for the majority of TV executives. And that's why I prefer not to quote articles that each have their own agenda, and prefer to do my own research. In this particular point, I use Netflix financials and Flixpatrol.
Myth has been busted.
I am glad though you seem to agree its not globally liked. And I will agree not everyone hates it. Seems like you could not refute my facts, so I guess we are in agreement them.
Mythbusters: The King Eternal Monarch edition.
According to Netflix's latest financial statement. Their current subscriber count as of June 30, 2020 is 187,903,000 or Approximately 188M subscribers.
The quick Breakdown is as follows.
United States and Canada (UCAN) - 71,437,000
Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) - 60,109,000
Latin America (LATAM) - 35,193,000
Asia-Pacific (APAC) - 21,164,000
Total Subscribers = 187,903,000
A lot of the defenders of the show likes to use flixpatrol to defend the shows popularity globally. So i'll be using the same metric to be fair to them. Flix patrol has a new metric called Netflix Preference, and of particular importance is this stat called Netflix Preference by Region. Simply put, it shows Netflix subscribers preference when watching shows of which country and region. Here are the quick numbers.
European Shows - 22.1%
North American Shows - 63%
Latin America Shows - 4.5%
Asian Shows - 9.6%
Now a quick glance of the more detailed stat shows that in (UCAN), the amount of Asian shows being consumed is at 1.3% for Canada and in the US it's .6%. For the next biggest region for netflix subscribers (EMEA), the numbers are barely higher, with France ranking the highest at 3.5% of consumption.
So hmmm, where are asian shows, which include kdrama, most consumed? The top country consuming Asian dramas is actually Japan at 66.5%, then South Korea at 62.5%, then other countries in Asia like, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and etc...
So if you quickly look at the top 10 countries viewing the king, or had king in their top 10, you'll notice that they are the same Asian countries, where Asian dramas are already being highly watched. What about the other countries like US and Canada, or even Europe? Not in the top 10. What about France? the biggest consumer of Asian media in Europe? Not in the top 10. So basically it's not a 188M subscribers that the King is reaching. It's maybe more like the 21 million in the Asia Pacific region. And out of that 21 million subscribers, how many watched king, we will never know, since it's not clear how many actual subscribers it takes to be top 1 on the Netflix website. But hey, you know what 21M/188M is actually 11.2%, which is not that far from the viewership ratings of the King in the local South Korean domestic Market, the king Averaged 8.4% domestically. But I highly doubt all 21M APAC netflix subscribers watched the King, because it's a top 10 list. So imagine it's a staggered kind of ranking, like American Idol, so top vote getter or top 1 show is probably close to 15-20%. Assuming 20% it's closer to 4M APAC viewers.
With the way some of the fans have been commenting, you'd think that the King was being watched by more than half of the world, this could not be further from the truth. Further research will also show that those countries where the King is ranked high, don't actually have a high subscriber count, with South Korea, ironically being one of the higher subscription count. For example, Thailand, which has the king in it's top 10, actually has less than 1 million Netflix subscriber in 2020. I think Japan may have the highest subscriber count at approximately 3 million subscribers. Other countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Hong Kong and etc... will have much lower counts.
So just based on the limited information available, plus the vague way Netflix factors the top 10 most watched, the actual numbers of watchers for the King, may not even exceed 5 million in Asia, which kind of proves that domestic success is still more important than success in Asia.
So when someone says Jackie Chan is a global star, I believe them, because he is literally known worldwide, and he has hollywood films to increase his legitimacy. When someone tells me Lee min ho or kim go eun are global stars, I am a skeptic, since being a star in Asia, is not the same as being a global star.
So is the king eternal monarch a global phenomenon? According to the facts in flix patrol and netflix financials. No. This myth has been busted. It seems to be popular in Asia though, but how popular we don't know, since that is another myth for another day.
Bonus Factoid:
Is Netflix a TV killer in South Korea?
To answer this question, we need to look at a country where Netflix is an actual TV killer. The best example of this is US. In the Us, there 119 Million TV households being monitored. In South Korea, the number is closer to 21 Million TV households. We know in the UCAN there are approx 71M subscribers, and I know from other source that 6M of that is in Canada. So that leaves US with 65M subscribers for 2020. With a TV viewing population of 119M, 65M accounts for approx 54% of the viewing population. That is massive, that more than 1 our of every 2 american tv household is a Netflix subscriber.
How about Korea? According to a Korea Herald article, the number of Netflix subscribers in South Korea is at 2 million. With 21 Million TV households, this accounts to a 9.5% market share for Netflix. Not exactly a TV killer in South Korea as compared to the US, but Netflix participation in APAC is quite new, and is likely to increase gradually in the succeeding years.
Source: Flixpatrol, Netflix financial statement ending June 30, 2020 (available online), Neilsens Korea and US, Google, and last but not the least, a Calculator.
Fact of the matter is, you don't know the actual numbers, your just guessing and making assumptions.
First off, you have to ask, was King available to every single one of those 193M subscribers? Are those 193M unique subscribers? How does the ranking of top watched in netflix get calculated? Does the top 1 most viewed equate to 100% of all subscriber accounts? Since none of this info is available publically, you can just assume as much as you want, and it would not matter, but to make yourself feel good I guess?
And I'm sorry, but Kdrama is nowhere near the level of Kpop. Most people in the US knows Blackpink and BTS, but ask them who lee min ho, kim go eun, or kim eun sook is, and they will scratch their head. And local advertisers are banking on domestic audience to push their ads. Do you really think they are making ads for BBQ olive chicken for the international audience? For advertisers, they value the 21M koreans, than the193M netflix accounts as you claim.
As for the ratings of backstreet rookie and it's ok not to be ok, i'm glad you brought those up, backstreet rookie is mired in it's own controversy regarding pedophilia, sexual abuse, and racism. And a lot of people disliked it as well, and the rating is as bad as the king. As for it's ok not to be ok, it's on TVN so the lower ratings are not bad for TVN already, but of course it could have been much better, here is the blurb from wikepedia.
This drama airs on a cable channel/pay TV which normally has a relatively smaller audience compared to free-to-air TV/public broadcasters (KBS, SBS, MBC and EBS).
As for Netflix, it belongs to a group of media streaming platforms coined OTT in SK. And the whole OTT subscription service includes youtube, wavve and other smaller streaming programs. And those amount to roughly 5-6M subscribers. So it's a nice big chunk, but still doesn't compare to terrestrial reach, which is 21 Million.
You argue that cable TV is taking away ratings from local broadcaster, but one of the shows on your list Hot Stove League's finale was top at 20%. And it's on SBS. Another local show, when the camellia blooms finale was at 20+% as well. So if a show is good, it will still perform, regardless if it's on cable or public TV. King just wasn't that good of a performer. And of course streaming services takes away from public TV, that's their main goal, but in Korea, that's still very very far form happening. US has 75M netflix subscribers, and the king was not the most watched show in US i'm sure. So out of that 193M netflix subscribers you claim, take away 75M of that. If I do further research, your 193M netflix subscribers will just keep on going down i'm sure.
King and it's ok not to be ok, is good for the industry in the sense that big name stars will be more willing to accept cable TV contract, which will boost subscriptions for TVN, JTBC and etc... But in the end, domestic success still trumps international success.
Actually, you've convinced me to dig into the numbers. Give me some time, and i'll post a comprehensive post as a solo comment. Math is fun!
Why is eun take a zero? I don't understand?
The bickering? exactly what about it was sophisticated? Seems pretty common Kdrama trope of both ML and FL bickering until they fall in love. Not just kdrama, western show also subscribe to this formula. Just wondering how it was different from what has already been done before?
If your a fan of both actors, then maybe you'll see it. Most people took issue of the portrayal of Kim go euns character as a tough as nail cop, that blubbers and cries every time she sees the main lead. And since the chemistry is rarely felt early on, a lot of people found it ridiculous that the character would cry every single time.
Add to that all the super corny lines fed by the main lead, and the fact every time the main couple met, they did a running hug, almost every single time. The romance portion got pretty old pretty quick.