[Korean Producers] Why CJ ENM is betting on musical theater in a digital age
As entertainment consumption becomes increasingly shaped by algorithms and on-demand platforms, CJ ENM is doubling down on one of the industry’s most analog bets: live musical theater.
Best known globally for blockbuster films and K-pop hits, the Korean entertainment giant has spent the past two decades quietly reshaping the domestic theater market. The scale of this commitment is currently visible across Seoul, where major productions including "Kinky Boots," "Moulin Rouge! The Musical," "Beetlejuice," and "Spirited Away" are running concurrently under CJ ENM's banner.
The scale of these big theater productions is a hallmark of CJ ENM’s style, underscoring a strategy that prioritizes high production values and long-term commercial viability.
For Yea Ju-yeol, who has been leading CJ ENM’s Performing Arts Division since 2019, musicals occupy a fundamentally different place in the content ecosystem to the company’s other exports.
“K-pop and similar genres move quickly, shaped by trends and rapid cycles, but musicals don’t work that way. They require a much longer horizon — content that can last 10 or even 20 Years,” Yea said during an interview with The Korea Herald last month.
Yea’s confidence in the sector is bolstered by a distinct shift in post-pandemic consumer behavior. While digital consumption has peaked, the appetite for in-person entertainment has returned with force.
“Compared to before the pandemic, the market has actually grown,” Yea observed. “As new media platforms are introduced and patterns of life change, people are craving live, in-person experiences. That sense of immediacy — an analog sensibility — has become more precious and valuable.”
CJ ENM’s current market leadership is the result of a strategy that evolved over two distinct decades.
During its first decade in the sector, the company acted as an industrializer. As corporate capital entered the Korean market, CJ ENM focused on expanding the ecosystem through partnerships rather than exclusive in-house production. This period was crucial for standardization, introducing systematic contracts and production practices that transformed a fragmented creative field into a sustainable industry.
The second decade marked a pivot toward capability building. As the domestic venue market plateaued, the company looked outward, investing in relationships with Broadway and West End producers.
The production of "Kinky Boots" serves as a prime example of this transition. CJ ENM invested directly in the Broadway production, a bet that paid off when the production went on to win six Tony Awards in 2013. Emboldened by this success, the company continued to scale its global commitments, investing approximately $1 million in the 2019 production of "Moulin Rouge! The Musical" and joining as a co-producer for "MJ the Musical" in 2022.
The next phase: Korea-born global hits
Entering what Yea describes as its next phase, CJ ENM has turned its attention toward building proprietary intellectual property while laying the groundwork for international expansion.
"The division's next 10-Year phase centers on a more ambitious goal: achieving mainstream success overseas with original Korean musicals,” Yea said.
“If original musicals are produced successfully at the large-theater level in Korea, the returns are significantly higher, and opportunities for overseas expansion naturally follow,” he said. “In that process, the market itself can grow in a more qualitative and sustainable way,” he added, noting that a deeper pool of creative talent and stronger government support will be critical to the next stage of growth.
This ambition is backed by a formidable asset: CJ ENM’s own vast content library, which includes multiple films that surpassed 10 million admissions in Korea such as "The Admiral: Roaring Currents," "Veteran," "Extreme Job" and the Academy Award–winning "Parasite." By mining a deep reservoir of box office hits and global dramas, the division can leverage stories with proven appeal.
Leading this charge is a musical adaptation of the 2012 hit Korean film "Dancing Queen," which is slated to premiere in Korea before expanding internationally through a phased rollout.
Rather than seeking overtly Korean or trend-driven material, the company focuses on themes rooted in emotions and sensibilities that can resonate globally. “‘Dancing Queen’ is built around a universal idea: That dreams do not come with an expiration date — a theme that resonates far beyond Korea,” Yea said.
Against this backdrop, CJ ENM brought to Korea the stage adaptation of Hayao Miyazaki's "Spirited Away," which opened last week at the Seoul Arts Center and runs through March 22.
"What impressed us most about 'Spirited Away' was its commitment to recreating the original almost exactly on stage. The production relied on remarkably analog, theatrical ideas, not digital effects, to bring the film to life, and that made it feel even more valuable in today’s world. After seeing it in Japan, I felt it was a work that truly understood the strengths of live theater, and one we could learn from as we think about adapting our own IP across media,” Yea explained.
“For the company,” Yea noted, “theater is no longer simply a venue-based business but a form of durable IP — one capable of generating cultural and commercial value over decades rather than quarters.”
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