“Squid Game”
The director does not receive a special payment
“Squid Game” is Netflix’s cash cow.
© Netflix
With “Squid Game” Netflix is making record profits, but series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk says he did not get rich with it.
“Squid Game” is the most successful Netflix series of all time. The thriller about desperate Koreans who risk their lives on a grueling game show for the grand prize will bring the streaming giant nearly $ 1 billion, or more precisely $ 900 million, according to internal documents.
But series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk (50) does not see more money than stipulated in the original contract from the surprise success of “Squid Game”. In an interview with “The Guardian” he confessed that he had become “not rich” through the series.
Hwang Dong-hyuk did not want to call himself rich, but neither did he want to call himself poor. “I have enough money to have food on the table”. But he didn’t get a bonus. “Netflix paid me under the original contract,” he said.
Netflix success thanks to low costs
“Squid Game” initially had no observer on the bill. The surprise hit only cost $ 21 million to produce, with a $ 2.4 million per episode. A piece of cake compared to Netflix hits like “The Crown”, which cost around 10 million per episode, although they attract significantly fewer users than “Squid Game”.