Korean drama “Good Doctor” remains the most-cited success story in conversations about Korean-to-Hollywood drama remakes, with its American adaptation — which premiered in 2017 and aired in a strong primetime slot — running for six seasons through 2022, making it the most enduring and commercially successful Korean drama remake produced for the US market to date.
The “Good Doctor” remake’s longevity has continued shaping how Hollywood studios and Korean production companies think about cross-border drama adaptation deals, functioning as a proof-of-concept that a Korean drama’s core premise and character dynamics can successfully translate into an American broadcast format even when substantially reworked for a different television production and storytelling tradition.
Korean entertainment conglomerate CJ has played a particularly significant role in building the infrastructure for these cross-border adaptation deals, having spent years developing a “one-source, multi-use” content strategy — treating a single successful Korean IP as a foundation for multiple international remake, licensing, and co-production deals rather than a one-off transaction, following a similar diversification logic to Korea’s broader webtoon-to-multi-format adaptation pipeline.
The Korean drama remake pathway to Hollywood has grown alongside, rather than in competition with, Korean content’s direct streaming success on platforms like Netflix. International audiences increasingly encounter Korean dramas either through direct subtitled or dubbed streaming access or through a domestically remade adaptation, giving Korean IP holders multiple simultaneous channels for international audience reach rather than needing to choose between direct export and remake licensing.
With Korean content’s global visibility continuing to grow through direct streaming success, industry watchers expect Hollywood’s appetite for Korean drama remake rights to remain robust, even as more international audiences gain the option to watch Korean originals directly rather than waiting for a domestically produced adaptation.
Source: “Good Doctor” US remake performance data; CJ Entertainment cross-border IP licensing strategy coverage.
