'120,000 won to 10,000 won — this has gone too far': Studio Dragon's stunning collapse

"It finally broke below 20,000 won," one investor wrote.

"At this rate, it could fall below 10,000 won too," another warned.

The slide at Studio Dragon, South Korea's leading drama production company, has turned serious. Shareholders have flooded online forums with complaints — "this has gone way too far" and "we're all ruined" — and the stock's decline has been far steeper than that of its peers.

Studio Dragon is the country's top drama producer. Its shares once traded well above 120,000 won. They have since broken through the 20,000-won floor and tumbled into the 10,000-won range.

On Friday, Studio Dragon closed at 19,760 won — an all-time low and the first time the stock had ever fallen below 20,000 won. Every shareholder is sitting on a loss.

Particularly hard hit are long-term investors who held the stock as a core Korean content play. "I held for the long haul and got completely wiped out," one shareholder wrote. "I finally cut my losses," said another.

The stock's outsized decline reflects first-quarter earnings that fell well short of expectations. Studio Dragon posted first-quarter sales of 155.3 billion won and operating profit of 6.4 billion won, badly missing market forecasts. Analysts had expected operating profit to exceed 10 billion won for the quarter.

Beyond the weak quarterly results, analysts say a deteriorating TV advertising market has sharply reduced the likelihood of expanded programming slots, adding further pressure on the share price. They also note that a recovery in Studio Dragon's stock is unlikely without a prior turnaround at its parent, CJ ENM. CJ ENM barely avoided a loss in the first quarter, posting operating profit of just 1.5 billion won.

Studio Dragon built its reputation on a string of hit series that helped define the Korean content industry — among them "Crash Landing on You" (2019–20), "Sweet Home" (2020), "Vincenzo" (2021), "The Glory" (2022–23), "My Husband in Law" (2024), "Queen of Tears" (2024) and "Dear X."

For years, a box-office hit reliably lifted a content company's share price. That dynamic has broken down. Most production houses are no longer making money.

Per-episode drama production budgets, which stood at just 300 million to 400 million won only a few years ago, have surged to 2 billion won. Film budgets have soared as well, reaching hundreds of billions of won in some cases.

A major driver of the cost surge is lead actor fees, which now run 300 million to 400 million won per episode. Even when a project becomes a hit, production costs are so high that studios often fail to turn a real profit — and their share prices have collapsed accordingly.

With the broader market falling more than 5 percent in a single session and dragging down even fundamentally sound companies, a near-term rebound for Studio Dragon looks unlikely for now.