South Korean sales outfit Finecut has expanded the Asia footprint for three K-pop idol-led theatrical releases, adding new territory deals for ‘After-School Exorcism Club: Girls’ Night’ and ‘Wi-Fi Love in the Palace’ and extending the reach of the previously sold ‘Wind Up: The Movie.’
The territory map
The new agreements split across exhibitors, streamers and a telecom operator, which is a useful snapshot of how idol-fronted film is being monetized in the region.
- After-School Exorcism Club: Girls’ Night — Indonesia (Catchplay+), Singapore (Shaw Organisation), Taiwan (Cola Films). The film premiered at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival and opened in Singapore cinemas in mid-August.
- Wi-Fi Love in the Palace — Japan (KDDI Corporation), Indonesia (Catchplay+), Taiwan (Cola Films).
- Wind Up: The Movie — added Hong Kong and Macao through Emperor Cinemas, joining earlier deals covering CIS, inflight, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan and Thailand.
Why idol-led IP travels
All three titles come from Kitz, the K-pop-focused content platform run by TakeOne Company. ‘After-School Exorcism Club’ stars the current Fifty Fifty lineup — Keena, Chanelle Moon, Yewon, Hana and Athena — in a story about five students racing to stop a spirit taking over their campus. ‘Wi-Fi Love in the Palace’ adapts a Kakao Page webtoon with The Boyz’s Younghoon, while ‘Wind Up: The Movie’ is fronted by NCT members Jeno and Jaemin.
For buyers, the commercial logic is straightforward: an idol group brings a pre-built, highly motivated audience that lowers discovery cost in markets where Korean entertainment already over-indexes. Fifty Fifty’s ‘Cupid’ broke through internationally in 2023, and even with a changed lineup in 2024, the group’s name still opens doors. That is less a comment on any single act than a structural feature of K-pop IP — fandom is borderless even when distribution is territorial.
The Kitz playbook
TakeOne’s Kitz slate is a multi-format IP bet, mixing theatrical releases with webtoon source material and idol casting. Finecut is also selling ‘Reapers on Duty’ from the same slate, pairing Monsta X’s Hyungwon with Lee Min-ki in a grim reaper story. At BCWW and the Toronto market, the company is presenting the idol titles alongside a wider package: the animated ‘Long Long Night,’ webtoon adaptation ‘Guardians of the Video Game’ (source material with 345 million views), Park Hoon-jung’s ‘Tristes Tropiques’ and July Jung’s ‘Dora.’
What to watch
The ‘Wind Up’ deal structure is instructive. It already includes inflight rights, theatrical-style deals across Southeast Asia, Japan via KDDI and now Hong Kong and Macao through Emperor Cinemas. That layering — theatrical for event value, streaming for reach, inflight for margin — is the practical playbook for K-pop-driven content. Buyers who wait for a single global streamer to pick up these titles may miss the point: the value is being built territory by territory, with different partners for different windows.
Source: Variety
