Star triplets hog the limelight at calendar sales

Calendar with pictures of star triplets from KBS2 ‘Superman Comes Back’ are in great demand around Christmas at the year end. Local e-commerce site Auction said, “The triplets’ calendar, which has been on sale by reservation from Tuesday, surpassed the threshold of 130,000 copies on Christmas morning on Thursday.” Since other 10 on-line malls are receiving reservations for the calendar, the total sales volume is expected to reach several hundreds of thousands.

In the Q&A section, many customers are posting carious comments such as “I have great expectation to see the pictures of triplets up close,” and “I made payment a few minutes ago. When will it be delivered?” Pictures in the calendar, priced at 5,500 won (approx. 5 U.S. dollars) per copy, were taken by actor Song Il-gook, the father of triplets, and the all sales profits will be donated.

The origin of making a calendar based on a TV program is ‘Infinite Challenge’ of MBC. Since the year end of 2007, the broadcasting company has been making and selling calendars for purpose of donation. The calendar has enjoyed great popularity since it is made of creative ideas, such as carrying paparazzi pictures taken by citizens or handwritings of the program cast Jeong Joon-ha. The donation amount is known to be around 3 billion won (approx. 2.7 million dollars) in total.

However, the popularity appears to be a bit declining for ‘Infinite Challenge’ calendar of 2015, which marks the 10th anniversary of the program, compared to the triplets’ calendar. Instead of containing the program’s unique and creative ideas, the 2015 calendar is made of behind-the-scene pictures.

Controversy was created over whether to go on with some casts, Gil and Roh Hong-cheol, who got off the show due to driving under the influence. The broadcasting network made a compromise by carrying a picture of five casts in the cover excluding the two drop-outs but containing pictures of all the casts in the inside of calendar. MBC said, “We believe it suits the purpose of calendar to contain all the good and bad things that have occurred over the year. However, the number of pictures of two casts at the center of controversy was reduced.”