In February 2016, Exo held the North American leg of The Exo'luxion tour in
Dallas , Vancouver , Los Angeles,
Chicago, and New Jersey. The same month, Exo were again ranked as the most powerful celebrity by Forbes Korea for the year 2015.
Exo's third studio album, Ex'Act , along with its singles "Lucky One" and "Monster", were released on June 9, 2016 in both Korean and Mandarin versions. [70] Domestic pre-sales for the album surpassed 660,000, making it the most pre-ordered K-pop album of all time. [71] The album later broke the record for the highest first week sales of a Korean album, breaking their previous record set by Sing For You, by selling 522,372 copies in one week. The album also went on to top the United World Albums Chart. "Monster" became Exo's first number one on the Billboard World Digital Songs chart, while "Lucky One" debuted at number 3. As part of their Ex'Act promotions, Exo and Korean fashion magazine W Korea collaborated on "Exoclusive", a project to publish a 54-page, nine-cover edition of the magazine. "Exoclusive" ended up recording the highest number of sales as a fashion magazine in Korea after selling nearly a million copies. On July 15, S.M. Entertainment and Putto Entertainment released Exo's official mobile game Exorun.
On July 21, Kris and Luhan officially parted ways with Exo as their contractual disputes with S.M. Entertainment drew to a close. On July 22, Exo embarked on their third solo concert tour, Exo Planet ＃3 - The Exo'rdium . In preparation for the tour, S.M. Entertainment announced the release of Exo's second official light stick. The new light stick features a white wand with Exo's official logo on top that displays a multi-color changing light. After holding concerts from July 22 until July 24 and July 29 until July 31 with over 84,000 attendees, Exo established a record as the first artist to hold as many as six consecutive concerts at the Olympic Gymnastics Arena. On August 18, a repackaged edition for Ex'Act , titled
Lotto , was released. It contained the original tracks from Ex'Act along with four new songs including the single of the same name. "Lotto" became Exo's second number one on the Billboard World Digital Songs Chart and peaked at number 2 on Gaon's Digital Chart. Lotto' s Korean and Chinese versions reached number 1 and 2 respectively on Gaon's Album Chart.
Within two months of its original release, Ex'Act sold over 1.17 million copies, honoring Exo with the title of "Triple Million Sellers".
In September, Exo appeared on Infinite Challenge and collaborated with Yoo Jae-suk on a dance song titled "Dancing King", which was released as part of S.M. Entertainment's music project Station. The song reached number 2 on South Korea's Gaon Digital Chart and number 3 on the
Billboard World Digital Songs chart.
On December 7, Exo's second Japanese single "Coming Over ", containing three original tracks, was released. Their third winter album and fifth extended play For Life was released on December 19. The group including sub-unit and solos sold 2.13 million copies in 2016.
EXO-CBX
On October 5, 2016, S.M. Entertainment announced the first sub-unit of Exo, consisting of three members: Chen , Baekhyun and Xiumin ,
[92] who had previously released an original soundtrack titled "For You" for the SBS television series Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo . On October 24, the sub-unit was announced to be named
EXO-CBX , "CBX" being the initials of the members' stage names. EXO-CBX released their debut extended play Hey Mama! and the music video for the single of the same name on October 31.
Legal Issues
On May 15, 2014, S.M. Entertainment confirmed that Exo-M's leader, Kris , had filed a lawsuit against the agency to terminate his contract for violation of basic human rights by treating him like a product rather than a person, disregard for his health, unfair profit distribution and restricting his freedom. The same law firm that represented Han Geng of Super Junior in his lawsuit against S.M. Entertainment also represented Kris.
On October 10, 2014, Luhan filed a lawsuit against S.M. Entertainment to nullify his contract, mainly because of health issues and for being treated differently than its Korean members. The same law firm that represented
Han Geng and Kris in their lawsuits against S.M. Entertainment also represented Luhan.
On August 24, 2015, Tao filed a lawsuit against S.M. Entertainment for termination of his contract and is being represented by the same legal team as Kris and Luhan. SM Entertainment responded to his legal actions by stating, "Our company plans to use everything in our power including both Korean and Chinese legal professionals and partners to respond legally both in Korea and China in a multi-faceted manner. We also plan to take legal steps to respond to Tao's illegal promotions and actions.".
On 5 January 2016, SM entertainment won one of their counter-lawsuits against Tao following the ruling of the Intermediate People's Court in the Qingdao, Shandong, in China. The agency sued Tao over his failure to repay the company after his departure. They released an official statement saying "SM has ongoing lawsuits against Exo members Wu Yifan (Kris), Luhan, and Tao for violating their exclusive contracts and partaking in illegal promotions in China. Among these lawsuits, SM filed a lawsuit against Tao for failing to repay SM on October 13, 2015. An intermediate court in Qingdao, China made the verdict that Tao is to repay SM Entertainment as well as interest for the delayed payment."
In July 2016, it was announced that the lawsuit between Luhan, Kris, and SM Entertainment had been settled. The two sides settled during their third court-mandated arbitration, the previous two being in September 2015 and June 2016, with the court "sett[ling] the case with recommendation for reconciliation." The two idols will maintain their contract with SM until 2022. SM Entertainment will contract out their work outside of Korea and Japan i.e. Kris and Luhan's Chinese agencies will "share related revenues" with SM Entertainment for activities anywhere but Korea and Japan (where SM Entertainment has exclusive rights per their contract) because SM Entertainment is technically "contract[ing] out management" for their non-Korean/Japanese activities until 2022, when their contracts with SM Entertainment expire.
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