Korean AI producer Kim Kwang-jib warned at the Taiwan Creative Content Fest in Taipei that generative AI could make feature films costlier than they were in the 35mm era if tool makers raise their prices. Kim, founder and CEO of Studio Meta-K, said the token fees alone for a 100-minute film made with the priciest commercial tools can reach 500 million won ($366,000).
He argued that AI companies are losing money and holding prices down as a marketing tactic. A tenfold increase would lift that bill to 5 billion won ($3.66 million), roughly the 3 billion to 5 billion won that Korean, Taiwanese and other Asian features typically spend on live action and visual effects. Hollywood productions budgeted near 200 billion won ($146.6 million) could absorb such a jump. Smaller Asian producers could not.
Revisions pose a second danger. Film crews once planned every take meticulously because each one burned stock, and digital cameras made retakes nearly free. Generative tools reverse that, Kim said, because every re-render is billed again. Without a solid preproduction stage, he said, AI films could end up costing more than 35mm productions did.
Studio Meta-K is testing a workaround: build an entire 100-minute film at film-like quality in preproduction, then reshoot only the shots that fall flat, such as emotional close-ups. The project, run with Busan’s Dongseo University, involves the director.
Lee Sang-wook, head of the AI Content Lab at broadcaster MBC’s subsidiary MBC C&I, said budgeting remains difficult because the tools change constantly. His fully AI-generated feature “Raphael” opens in Korean cinemas in November, and a single shot on it sometimes tied up about 10 artists for a day, the panel heard. Lee said his company avoids open-source models because it cannot verify their training data, and he noted that no model yet meets European Union AI Act guidelines. He does not expect AI to replace actors’ emotional detail, because audiences “are still people.”
Kim also rejected the idea that AI will displace film workers, saying the tools take months to learn while film grammar takes years. The cost warning follows a rocky domestic record. According to Korea JoongAng Daily, the AI features “I’m PoPo” and “Man in Hanbok” drew 781 and 640 admissions before leaving theaters. The film “Steelay” spent more than half of its sub-1-billion-won budget on AI tools.
