Let's forget the K-O-R-E-A-N incels, crazed conservative politicians who still think they are living in the Cold War, Mr. Bang's greed and vanity, the continued machinations of Lee Jieun who cannot hide her laughter, etc
Let's just calculate the opportunity cost of Bang not sending BTS out of K-O-R-E-A before the incels got crazy and not promoting them during the months of Dec 2021-Dec 2022.
(I am not calculating the impacts of their solos. They are like pieces of a great ship after a shipwreck. None of them are going to be like Harry Styles, except maybe Jungkook which is another story, and frankly speaking any solo success is a consolation prize.
A recent survey showed that K-O-R-E-A only counts as 10% of the world
Map of the Soul Tour - Wikipedia
Here is BTS' 2020 putative tour schedule, tours it will probably never have. 36 tours not counting K-O-R-E-A.
BTS made $35 million its 4 day vegas concert and $$33.3 million from its 3 day sofi concert. That's $68.3m from 7 days.
Being a bit more conservative, let's say they make an average of $7.5m every day. 36 * 7.5 = $270 million just from tours, not counting any goods sold.
They would have toured a big more in 2022-23, similar to 2023-24 and a bit less in 2024-25, so let's say 40 (since they will never be welcomed back in K-O-R-E-A no Korean tours) * 3 = 120 more tours at $8m each
$960 million
Total $1.23 billion from concerts
Actually that number would be lower than actual since K-O-R-E-A had introduced a law which limits male idols from leaving K-O-R-E-A more than 5 times in 2 years if they did not complete their military services.
Add the albums they would have released from overseas (no K-O-R-E-A but serious Armys remaining in there would buy from whatever country BTS would have chosen to domicile) and the losses mount
They say Hybe's value, now standing at $5 billion now, would be at least double what it is now if BTS' military exemption would have been granted.
Losing everything they had in K-O-R-E-A would probably mean nothing in front of a $2 billion series of tour and other income
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The so called Yet to Come tour in 2025 would be unlikely to earn as much as the tours in what would have been BTS' peak. Plus, Jungkook is unlikely to serve till then, meaning its duration will be limited. plus it is likely to be BTS' final hurrah, no matter how big it might be, since by that point of time the members would probably want to move on after not operating together for 3 years as a group.
Some say Rolling Stones is still making big money from its tours, but its prices are quite high, starting from about $250 and easilly exceeding $1,000 for better hits. And it is after the impact of the covid , making a lot of people rushing to the concert halls.
And BTS is a dancing act. Will it dance like that when they are at Rolling Stones' age? Nah.
Bang wanted to be seen important in K-O-R-E-A so he used BTS to make the company grow. Well, lo and behold, all the acts Hybe have combined won't even make half of BTS ' revenue.
Kim Seokjin was put into the same table with IU on T-Ara's Jiyeon's wedding. I wonder what he was thinking, sitting next to the very person who contributed more than anyone else to bring down bts by wresting K-O-R-E-A from it and making the K-O-R-E-A-N incels an argument that bts is not as important to K-O-R-E-A as it is advertised.
