‘Hospital Playlist’ spin-off ‘Resident Playbook’ delayed into second half of 2024

THE BOYZ have announced their upcoming 2024 ‘Zeneration II’ world tour, featuring concerts in Asia, the US, Europe and more.Today (April 8), THE BOYZ announced the first batch of dates for their upcoming 2024 ‘Zeneration II’ world tour. The trek will follow their 2023 ‘Zeneration’ world tour, which had featured 24 dates in Asia.‘Zeneration II’ will kick-off in July with a three-date show in South, South Korea, before the boyband head to the US for a solo tour the first time since 2022.

Goodbye Earth.Today (April 9), the streamer revealed though its Netflix K-Content account on X (formerly Twitter) that Goodbye Earth will premiere April 26. The announcement was accompanied by 10 stills from the upcoming K-drama, which will star Ahn Eun-jin, Jeon Sung-woo and more.Notably, none of the stills feature actor Yoo Ah-in, who has been embroiled in controversy regarding his alleged drug use since early-2023.

EXCLUSIVE: The extraordinary exploits of convicted fraudster Russell King will be recounted in King of All Cons (WT), a feature doc that has just gone into production. Emmy-nominated Dash Pictures is making the film with Sky in the UK and Matthew Lorenzo Productions, the indie set up by the titular Lorenzo, a former Sky Sports presenter.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Oscar-winning Japanese animation film “The Boy and the Heron” earned a chart-topping $34.9 million between Friday and Sunday at the mainland China box office. Over its full five-day opening run, it took an even more spectacular $73 million. China was the last major territory to play the Studio Ghibli-produced fantasy in cinemas – it released in its native Japan in July and is imminently headed to streaming in many other territories – but that did not stop Chinese audiences from lapping it up. While most films release in China on a Friday, “The Boy and the Heron” was given a Wednesday outing in order to capture momentum from the Thursday-to-Saturday Qingming public holiday. Consultancy firm Artisan reports that it earned RMB248 million ($34.9 million) over the conventional Friday-to-Sunday weekend.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Without significant new challengers, spooky Korean drama “Exhuma” held on at the top of the South Korea box office chart for the seventh consecutive weekend. Its cumulative passed the symbolic $80 million mark. The lack of strong new release titles also meant that aggregate weekend box office in Korea slipped to a lowly $5.59 million. The Choi Min-sik-starring “Exhuma” dropped roughly 50% week-on-week to record $1.59 million between Friday and Sunday, and a 28% market share, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic).

EXCLUSIVE: The Traitors continued on its path of global domination with 11 territory launches in 2023, unseating The Masked Singer as analysis firm K7‘s Format of the Year after four years of domination.

Emiliano De Pablos Spain’s film and TV industries are in their second wave as standout content providers for global streamers. Some of the country’s most intriguing titles will take the international stage this weekend at MipTV in Cannes. Built on a foundation of hits such as “The Red Band Society,” “Grand Hotel,” “Velvet” and “Locked Up,” a new era of internationally renowned content creation in Spain kicked off in 2018 with Alex Pina’s blockbuster series “Money Heist,” picked up by Netflix.

Big Bang star G-Dragon will be releasing new music sometime in the second half of the year, his label has confirmed.His label Galaxy Corporation announced that G-Dragon would be making his long-awaited comeback “in the second half of this year”, in a statement to South Korean news outlet News1 earlier today (April 3).“After making his comeback, he will be carrying out global activities, and activities in Japan are also planned as part of them,” Galaxy Corporation added in its statement, via Soompi. G-dragon’s forthcoming comeback will be his first solo release in about seven years, since he released his self-titled EP ‘Kwon Ji-yong’ in 2017.

NME also previously spotted social media accounts for a potential Waterbomb Festival Singapore back in March.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Spooky Korean drama film “Exhuma” held on at the top of the local box off ice chart for the sixth consecutive weekend. It saw off challenges from significant newcomers “Troll Factory” and “Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire.” The Choi Min-sik-starring “Exhuma” dropped 32% week-on-week to record $3.08 million between Friday and Sunday, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic).

T-ARA singer Areum has addressed her recent suicide attempt and subsequent hospitalisation on Instagram.On March 27, South Korean media reported that Areum had been taken to a hospital after attempting to take her own life. The news came a day after Areum accused her ex-husband, businessman Kim Young-gul, of being physically and emotionally abusive towards her and her children.On March 29, Areum took to her Instagram to post a picture of herself on a hospital bed, accompanied with a caption addressing her attempt and her recovery, saying that “the hospital said it was a miracle I survived”.“I remembered my loved ones, children, family and friends at the brink of death,” she wrote, per Korea JoongAng Daily. “After realising I might never see them again, I desperately wanted to live, so I held on and regained consciousness.”In the same post, Areum also addressed several accusations a South Korean YouTuber had levied against her and her current partner, which included soliciting money from her Instagram followers for a prior hospital treatment, unrelated to the suicide attempt.“What this YouTuber has said is not true,” Areum wrote.

MAMAMOO singer Hwasa has announced her upcoming 2024 ‘Twits’ solo fancon tour, with concerts in Taiwan, Singapore and more.Today (April 1), MAMAMOO’s Hwasa announced the first batch of dates for her ‘Twits’ solo fancon tour. Notably, the tour is named after the K-pop idol’s fandom name Twits, which in turn was inspired by her 2019 solo debut single ‘Twit’.Hwasa’s new tour will kick off on May 11 with a concert in Hong Kong, followed by shows in Taipei and Singapore in June 2024.

B.I has announced the Asia dates for the concerts on his upcoming 2024 ‘Hype Up’ tour.Over the weekend on March 30, B.I revealed the first batch of dates for his upcoming 2024 ‘Hype Up’ tour, which will kick off this May with concerts across six Asian cities.B.I will embark on his newly announced tour on May 24 with a show in Hong Kong. Thereafter, the singer will perform concerts in Bangkok, Singapore, Manila and Jakarta in June, followed by a Macau show in July.According to the poster for the 2024 ‘Hype Up’ tour, more cities and dates will be announced soon.

K-Pop is going stronger than ever!

T-ARA singer Areum has reportedly been hospitalised after a suicide attempt.South Korean news outlet Osen (via journalist Jeff Benjamin) reported that Areum had been taken to a hospital after attempting to take her own life in the early morning of March 27. The publication also reported that the singer has yet to regain consciousness and had left a suicide note.The news comes just a day after Areum accused her ex-husband, businessman Kim Young-gul, of being physically and emotionally abusive towards the singer and her children in a post on Instagram.

EXO singer D.O. – real name Doh Kyung-soo – has announced his upcoming 2024 ‘Bloom’ fan concert tour of Asia.Today (March 25), EXO’s D.O.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Locally-produced horror-drama “Exhuma” held on to top spot at the South Korea cinema box office for a fifth consecutive weekend. Its complete dominance of the market kept “Exhuma” comfortably ahead of the holdover “Dune 2” and a couple of lower-powered new releases and allowed its running total to surpass 10 million ticket sales. That is the conventional measure of a blockbuster in Korea, a country with a population of roughly 50 million. Over the latest weekend “Exhuma” sold 618,000 tickets for a gross revenue of $4.56 million and a market share of 56%, according to data from Kobis, the database operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). The latest increment gives the film a total of $73.4 million earned from 10.2 million admissions.

Netflix's hit show Squid Games is well-known across the world wit everyone now waiting for its second series. Thankfully to help fill the void until then, Squid Game: The Challenge was released which was also a hit success.

Kensington Palace is facing fresh questions over image editing after Getty Images added an editor’s note to a picture of Queen Elizabeth II taken by Kate Middleton.

BM of K-pop group KARD has announced his upcoming 2024 ‘After the After Party’ tour.Today (March 19), KARD’s BM and tour organiser Konnect’d Entertainment revealed that the K-pop idol is set to go on his first solo tour of the US, titled ‘After the After Party’.According to the announcement the rapper will embark on his tour this May. Information about the tour, including cities, dates, venues, ticketing and more is expected in the coming weeks.