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Korean Filmmakers Warn AI Films Could Cost More Than the 35mm Era: The Numbers From Taiwan's Creative Content Fest

8 November 2026 · RenderBob team

At Taiwan's Creative Content Fest, Korean AI-film producers said token prices and re-renders could push AI features above 35mm costs. The figures are theirs.

At Taiwan's Creative Content Fest, two Korean AI-film practitioners argued that unpredictable token prices, repeated re-rendering and fast-changing tools could make AI films more expensive than conventional ones. Variety's report, syndicated by Yahoo on 8 November, carries the figures.

Who said it

• Kim Kwang-jib, founder and CEO of Studio Meta-K, an AI content studio.
• Lee Sang-wook, head of the AI Content Lab at MBC C&I, a subsidiary of broadcaster MBC.
• Archin Yen, a director and VFX supervisor at WWWIND Studio, moderated.

The cost claims

All figures are the speakers' own, converted into dollars by the outlet.

• A feature's token bill. With the most expensive commercial tools, tokens alone for a 100-minute film could top KRW500 million (about $366,000).
• A price rise. Kim argues AI firms are losing money and keeping prices low as a marketing play. If prices rose roughly tenfold, the same bill would reach KRW5 billion (about $3.66 million). Korean, Taiwanese and other Asian features typically spend KRW3-5 billion ($2.2-3.66 million) on live action and VFX, while a KRW200 billion ($146.6 million) Hollywood film could absorb a tenfold rise.
• Commercials. A Pizza Hut spot aired last year took about eight months and roughly KRW2 billion ($1.4 million). Studio Meta-K's in-house AI version took about two weeks and about KRW30 million ($22,000), roughly 2% of the cost. Kim says advertising costs can fall more than 90%.
• A feature. MBC C&I's 139-minute film Raphael took about 16 months. One shot sometimes occupied around ten artists for a full day. It opens in Korean cinemas on 25 November.

Why costs could rise

• Re-rendering is paid every time. Kim's example: ten changes sent at once need one re-render, while the same ten sent one per day need ten.
• Token pricing. The budget depends on prices the studios do not set.
• Tool churn. Lee says updates arrive weekly, and technology from a year earlier makes scenes "look very old".
• Weak preproduction. Kim warns that without it, AI "could end up spending even more money than in the 35mm film era".

What they are doing about it

Kim doubts audiences will pay for fully AI films yet. He favours AI for crowd scenes of more than 500 extras with leads shot live, and his studio is testing a full 100-minute film built in preproduction at film-like quality, then reshooting weak parts. He estimates about 50 minutes would need live action for now. Lee's team releases in cinemas first. Studio Meta-K uses free open-source models for simpler shots and paid tools for difficult ones, while MBC C&I avoids open-source tools because it cannot verify training-data transparency, and has joined C2PA.

Delivery and jobs

Lee says streamers check files mechanically, and AI output still struggles with bitrate and colour grading. Kim expects crews of hundreds on one scene to become rarer. Lee expects new roles such as previsualisation artists and continuity supervisors, and says spatial consistency is harder than character consistency.

What is not shown

These are predictions and self-reported numbers. The report gives no breakdown of the token estimate, no price quotes from the tool makers, and no independent costing.

What to watch

Raphael's release and any budget disclosure, whether tool makers change prices, and whether other productions publish their re-render counts.

RenderBob 3 and this story

RenderBob 3 makes the model a per-clip choice and keeps references and prompt logs with the studio, so a team can see which shots were re-rendered and choose a different option for the costly ones.