"Settlement amount 88 million won↑, I couldn't believe my ears"... 'Ten-million-won actor' Park Ji-hoon gets credit from the author of 'The Legend of the Cook' [Star Issue]

*This content was translated by AI.

The author of the original work that became Park Ji-hoon's life-defining piece, "The Legend of the Cook," Je Robin (real name Oh Jong-pil), has sparked discussion by revealing his settlement amount.

Recently, Je Robin posted on his SNS, "After the drama aired, I heard the novel royalty settlement amount for this month and doubted it. The novel alone is about 88 million won, and the webtoon settlement amount, which is not yet finalized, is said to be even larger than that," drawing attention.

Je Robin is the author of the original work for the OTT TVING original "The Legend of the Cook" (hereinafter "The Cook"), which concluded successfully on the 16th. He wrote both the original web novel and the webtoon.

Je Robin attributed the success of the drama squarely to Park Ji-hoon. Park Ji-hoon perfectly embodied the role of the protagonist, Kang Sung-jae, following up his hit in the ten-million-won film "The Man Who Lives with the King" with another consecutive home run.

In response, Je Robin remarked, "Looking back, I am truly a lucky author. The buzz from the success of 'The Man Who Lives with the King' naturally led to 'The Cook'."

He continued, "With the timing of a massive crackdown on illegal webtoon sites, readers flowed into official serialization sites. Thanks to the different adaptation directions of the drama and the original work, many readers who were curious about 'What's different?' sought out the original work. Thanks to the reverse flow of the work, my lecture fees per session jumped more than fivefold. All this luck is ultimately due to the readers who found and read my work to the end," adding, "I will repay you with even more interesting stories."

Later, Je Robin explained the reason for honestly disclosing the settlement amount. He pointed out, "It is because there is a misunderstanding (?) that original work fees are low even when adapted into a drama."

Furthermore, Je Robin added, "It seems that the income of web novel/webtoon story authors falls into five main categories: 1. Novel royalties (70-80% of sales), 2. Advertising fees (free viewing, approximately 3-5 won per ad view?), 3. Webtoon royalties (about 5-10% of webtoon sales when the novel is adapted into a webtoon), 4. Invitation lecture fees (several hundred thousand won to several million won per session), 5. Video copyright fees (0.1 billion won to 100 million won + performance bonus / here 1/N). While one might think the video copyright fees are not high compared to the drama's success, I believe the structure is not one where the author loses out, as other revenues increase significantly just from the drama airing."

He then analyzed, "With the airing of 'The Cook' drama, I am spending the happiest day of my life. The differences from the original work may actually be an opportunity for me to feel the fun of the original work and the fun of the drama simultaneously."

Additionally, Je Robin expressed, "'The Cook' was a work that contained my life. I started my military service in Samcheok, Gangwon-do, and through promotions from outpost, battalion, division, corps, to the Army Headquarters, I experienced episodes while transferring to progressively higher-level units, which I recreated as a novel and webtoon. During the airing of the drama with that background, every day was incredibly happy. To the production team that turned my insufficient original novel and my first, very lacking webtoon into a perfect drama,

I only have a sincere heart of gratitude. From tomorrow, I will return to my daily routine, but I will never forget the deep emotions that made my heart race on Mondays and Tuesdays from May 11 to June 16. Thank you to everyone who watched! Thanks to you, I was happy!" as he was immersed in extraordinary sentiments.

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*This content was translated by AI.