Key Points
- The Death Note stage musical, adapted from the Japanese manga, sells £1 million in tickets within 18 hours in London.
- The show opens at the Barbican theatre amid a fast-accelerating wave of Korean and Japanese culture in the West.
- More than 70% of ticket buyers had never visited the Barbican before, and 25% came from abroad, per the producer.
The Latest:
The Death Note stage musical, adapted from the hit Japanese manga, sold £1 million worth of tickets within its first 18 hours on sale ahead of its opening at London’s Barbican theatre, the latest sign of surging Korean and Japanese cultural influence in the West, according to The Sunday Times.
Details:
- The Numbers: Howard Panter, joint chief executive of producer Trafalgar Entertainment, said more than 70% of buyers had never visited the Barbican before, and 25% came from abroad.
- The Music Wave: K-pop group BTS, the world’s best-selling act with more than 40 million albums sold, said last year it would boycott the Grammys over being placed in a separate Asian pop category.
- The Economic Numbers: South Korean cultural exports generated more than $15 billion last year, the paper reports, surpassing the combined workforce of Samsung and SK Hynix.
- Streaming: KPop Demon Hunters became Netflix’s most-watched original film ever, according to the paper.
What to Watch:
Death Note continues its run at the Barbican, while the British Museum prepares to host a “Korea” exhibition this autumn billed as Europe’s most comprehensive survey of Korean culture in more than 40 years.
