Cortis emerges as BIGHIT MUSIC’s next major hit IP after BTS, mini 2nd album sales draw attention

[Financial News] Cortis (Martin, James, Juhoon, Seonghyeon, Keonho), who even appeared in BTS (Bangtan Boys) member RM’s recommendation algorithm, is creating a “Cortis sensation.” The BIGHIT MUSIC group has nearly reached 2 million pre-orders for its new release in just two weeks of pre-sales.
According to album distributors YG Plus and Universal Records on the 10th, pre-orders for Cortis’s second mini album “GREENGREEN” totaled 1,969,384 copies as of the 9th.
Pre-orders opened on March 27, so this figure was achieved in just two weeks. There are still about three weeks left until the album’s official release on May 4.
The album recorded 1,227,986 pre-orders in the first week alone, and then added roughly 740,000 more in the following week. This is more than four times the first-week sales of their debut album “COLOR OUTSIDE THE LINES,” which sold 436,367 copies in its initial week.

Cortis debuted in August last year without revealing the members’ faces in advance through audition programs or similar shows. Despite that, their debut album went on to sell over 2 million copies. Industry observers largely attribute this success to the strength of their music.
The title of Cortis’s first mini album is “COLOR OUTSIDE THE LINES.” It emphasized free self-expression that breaks away from fixed boundaries, and the musical direction also departed from the typical formulas of K-pop idol music. The lyrics mix English and Korean, and the overall sound is closer to global pop.
According to Circle Chart, cumulative sales of Cortis’s first mini album reached 1 million in about three months after release and 2 million in six months. Cortis thus became only the second K-pop group in history, after Zerobaseone (ZB1) from Mnet’s “Boys Planet,” to achieve double million-seller status with a debut album.
“GREENGREEN” is built around what the team aspires to and what it wants to avoid, and includes a total of six tracks. The album has already been saved 657,000 times in advance on Spotify, placing it at No. 3 on the platform’s “Spotify Countdown Chart Global” dated the 9th. It ranks just behind new releases by global pop star Olivia Rodrigo and popular American singer-songwriter Noah Kahan.
Cortis will pre-release the title track “REDRED” on the 20th. In August, the group is set to perform on the stage of major U.S. music festival “Lollapalooza Chicago.”


jashin@fnnews.com Shin Jin-ah Reporter