Chinese New Year movies are no longer just exclusive to theaters, but also have a "mini version" on mobile phones. During this year's Spring Festival, micro-short dramas ushered in the momentum of "breaking the circle", with more than 800 micro-short dramas competing for the New Year, including many "big productions" with big IP derivatives and star endings.
While the number and quality of dramas are improving, the audience of micro-short dramas is also expanding. In addition to the small-town youth in lower-tier cities, there are more and more young people.
People in first- and second-tier cities who are staying at home or returning to their hometowns also hold their mobile phones to watch micro-short dramas, and some people unconsciously dig into their pockets along with the plot of "above".
The rhythm is fast enough and the plot is cool enough, which made the micro-short drama popular last year and became a "spiritual lipstick" to soothe emotions. New opportunities have attracted long-term and short-term platforms to increase their weight, and celebrity IPs have entered the game one after another. Industry insiders expect that in 2024, micro-short dramas will inevitably be very "volume", and high-quality will become the general trend, but after the industry carnival, it will also precipitate calm thinking about content creation, profit models and other aspects.
Brushing micro-short dramas for the New Year has become a New Year's custom
The familiar plots such as rebirth, love after marriage, and anger against the wicked, coupled with the background of the 80s of the 20th century, and the unique settings such as the male protagonist being the "boss" of the pig farmer, a micro-short drama called "I was a stepmother in the 80s" became popular on the platform during the Spring Festival. Ms. Zhang, a Beijing citizen who was bored at home, paid for the first time for this drama for the first time, "I was a little embarrassed to watch it at first, but I found that many people around me were watching it." This short drama that "soiled" into the fifth ring road, because of the appearance and acting skills of the male and female protagonists, and the production is relatively sophisticated, in the context of stricter supervision, once again proved the ability of the mini program "cool drama" to attract money, with more than 20 million subscriptions in a single day.
The micro-short dramas that used to focus on users in lower-tier cities obviously "broke the circle" during the Spring Festival this year. In addition to the sophisticated "cool dramas", there are also many works adapted and derived from big IPs and starring stars, which have attracted them.
Users in first- and second-tier cities. This Spring Festival, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television released a list of 16 high-quality micro-short dramas, involving long and short ** platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, iQiyi, and Mango TV. Taking Douyin as an example, the topic of the Spring Festival file of short dramas is 28300 million, more than five times that of the same period last year.
The short drama "Young Master and I" has become the electronic mustard of Mr. Wang, a citizen of Beijing, this Spring Festival, this short drama starring the popular group "Young Master and I" in the variety show "The Second Season of the Annual Comedy Competition", which attracted many previous "variety show fans". "I didn't expect celebrities to come to act in short dramas now, and the production level is already comparable to platform web dramas. After returning home during the Spring Festival, Xiao Xin watched the short drama "The New Year", which attracted stars to participate in the short drama only updated 8 episodes, and the total number of feature films has exceeded 400 million.
Multi-party entry short dramas continue to be high-quality
After the explosion of short dramas last year proved its extraordinary ability to attract gold, the industry was unprecedentedly hot. Although the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and other relevant departments tightened supervision in a timely manner and removed a number of short dramas with marginal content and negative guidance, micro-short dramas still attracted "regular troops" such as big IPs, big platforms, and big producers. For a while, some people laughed that Hengdian became a "vertical store", and during the Spring Festival, a group of group performances earned "overtime pay" and went crazy among various short drama crews.
The short ** platform most closely related to micro-short dramas has recently launched support plans. Among them, Douyin released the "Chenxing Plan" in January this year, which released two cooperation models of joint production and joint operation for film and television companies, MCN institutions, individual creators, etc., and launched a plan of up to 5 million yuan in cash and 100 million yuan in traffic support. Shortly after the release of this plan, comedy star Stephen Chow, as the initiator, reached an exclusive boutique micro-short drama cooperation with the platform, and the two sides will jointly develop and operate the "9527 Theater", the first work is expected to be launched in May this year.
In addition, iQiyi, Tencent, Mango TV and other long-term ** platforms are also continuing to lay out the micro-short drama market, and during the Spring Festival this year, there are selected micro-short dramas to celebrate the New Year. Looking at the micro-short dramas in the Spring Festival, more sophisticated productions, more weighty actors or teams, and more well-known IP adaptations or derivatives have reflected the general trend of micro-short dramas moving towards high-quality products.
Calm thinking after "hot and piping hot".
Based on multi-platform data, it is expected that the total box office of this year's Spring Festival micro-short dramas will reach 800 million yuan, and this is just the beginning. According to iiMedia Consulting data, the market size of micro-short dramas will reach 373 in 2023900 million yuan, and the market size is expected to exceed 100 billion yuan in 2027.
Although the industry is currently "hot and hot", some people think that there should be more calm thinking after the carnival. He Ming, an industry insider who has participated in the writing and directing of micro-short dramas, said frankly that film and television celebrities may not necessarily succeed in switching to micro-short dramas, because short dramas have their own narrative rhythm and style, which are very different from the creation of long dramas and movies. At the same time, the audience is becoming more and more discerning. "It is impossible for short dramas to repeat the routines of rebirth, revenge, and hegemony forever, leaving the sinking market, how to be compatible with more aesthetics, and test the ability of creators. In Heming's view, after the "volume" in 2024, micro-short dramas need to explore how to continue to attract audiences and run through the profit model after breaking away from the "cool drama" model with richer themes.
Qian Lili, the person in charge of Douyin's boutique short dramas, also believes that big IP and big production are not necessarily the same as boutique paintings. "On the whole, short dramas can stand out from many content product forms, which is inseparable from its advantages of being short and concise, and more cost-effective than long ones. We don't encourage cost-only and production-only ism, but we want to go back to the content and the story itself. ”
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