Song Joong-Ki News: 'Descendants Of The Sun' Success Quickly Pays off $11 Million Production Cost
The huge hit and popularity of 'Descendants Of The Sun' enabled the show to quickly pay off its production cost of $11 million.
iQiyi.com bought the exclusive rights for the 16 episode drama (romance thriller) that are starring Song Joong-Ki and Song Hye-Kyo to air in China for $250,000 per episode. Song Joong Ki's role as Captain Yoo Si Jin and Song Hye Kyo as the female doctor has drawn so much popularity around the world.
iQiyi.com is an online video platform based in Beijing, China launched on April 22, 2010. iQiyi is currently the largest online video site in China. The drama surpassed 100 million views on average for each episode that has aired in China.
The latest episode was viewed by 34.3 percent of the viewers in South Korea Seoul, and scored a record 40.9 percent rating.
In Hong Kong and Singapore, Descendants is the most-watched show on the Viu online service. Last month (March), about 60 per cent of Viu's viewers in Singapore and Hong Kong tuned in to watch Descendants.
The so-called "Song-Song couple" arrived in Hong Kong on Monday amid warm applause from crowds of fans for their first overseas TV series press event.
The drama is available on viu.com and the Viu app, which can be downloaded from the App Store and Google Play Store. New episodes are available eight hours after the its aired in South Korea on Wednesday and Thursday.
The drama is so popular to the point that it reportedly led to China's Ministry of Public Security issuing a warning about it.
