SUNNYVALE, Calif. — A younger girl is determined to lift $50,000 for her mother’s life-saving medical remedy. She’s going to get the cash, however provided that she agrees to her stepsister’s uncommon proposal: to marry her wayward fiance, who comes from a rich household but in addition has a rap sheet.
That’s the plot line for an episode of “The Double Life of My Billionaire Husband.”
Which will sound like a telenovela. The truth is, it’s a well-liked sequence that seems on ReelShort, an app the place audiences can view on their smartphones over-the-top, dramatic tales harking back to cleaning soap operas referred to as micro dramas.
Not like an everyday TV present, this drama unfolds over 60 episodes, every lasting one to 3 minutes. After six episodes, viewers hit the paywall, the place they may proceed watching ad-free with a $20 weekly subscription, watch advertisements or pay as they go.
Already, the sequence has garnered greater than 494 million views because it launched in 2022 and ReelShort says it has made greater than $4 million from the present.
With titles like “The Billionaire Sex Addict and His Therapist,” “How to Tame a Silver Fox” and “Pregnant by My Ex’s Dad,” micro dramas lean closely into sensationalism and light-weight on budgets, that are usually lower than $300,000 per sequence. And lots of of them are filmed in Los Angeles.
Director and co-writer Cate Fogarty watches actor Diego Escobar on twin vertical screens. The movie, by platform DramaShorts, is shot vertically to be tailored for viewing on a cellphone display screen.
(Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Instances)
Brief serialized dramas first took off in China, the place they’re massively common and generated revenues of $6.9 billion final yr, even surpassing home field workplace gross sales, based on DataEye, a Shenzhen-based digital analysis agency.
Now, Hollywood is beginning to pay attention to the bite-sized format.
In August, the enterprise arm for Lloyd Braun — the previous ABC govt and chairman of expertise company WME — and L.A.-based leisure studio Cineverse fashioned a three way partnership referred to as MicroCo to construct a platform for micro dramas.
“Traditional Hollywood moved away from a whole genre and storytelling that fans love, and I think micro dramas really took advantage of that and really leaned into that fandom,” mentioned Susan Rovner, chief content material officer of MicroCo.
Studio curiosity
Main studios are investing in micro dramas in an try to duplicate China’s success and discover new methods to enchantment to youthful audiences which might be accustomed to watching short-form movies on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and different platforms whereas on the go.
Fox Leisure just lately introduced an fairness stake in Ukraine-based Holywater, a producer of micro dramas. Underneath the deal, Fox Leisure Studios (a division of Fox Leisure) will produce greater than 200 vertical video titles over the following two years for Holywater.
And Walt Disney Co.’s accelerator program, which invests in startups, just lately named micro drama enterprise DramaBox, whose mother or father firm is predicated in Singapore, as a part of its 2025 class.
David Min, Walt Disney Co.’s vp of innovation, mentioned he believes micro dramas will proceed to do nicely, particularly with youthful audiences accustomed to watching leisure on their telephones.
“We have to be where everyone is consuming their content, so that’s an opportunity for us,” Min mentioned in an interview. “…This is just another new platform to experiment with and explore and see if it’s right for the company.”
First assistant director Chakameh Marandi, left, and actress Leah Eckardt wait throughout filming at Heritage Props final month in Burbank.
(Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Instances)
This yr, ReelShort, which is predicated in Sunnyvale, Calif., says it’ll produce greater than 400 exhibits, up from 150 final yr.
All the productions are filmed within the U.S. and principally in Los Angeles, mentioned ReelShort CEO Joey Jia in an interview. The corporate plans to construct a studio in Culver Metropolis that may adapt its hottest micro dramas into movies.
“We offer a lot of opportunity,” Jia mentioned.
Warsaw-based DramaShorts mentioned in 2026 it goals to shoot 120 micro drama tasks within the U.S., up from 45 to 50 this yr. About 25% of these will probably be within the L.A. space.
DramaShorts co-founder Leo Ovdiienko says, “People are so used to consume content through social media, through TikTok, through Instagram, through Facebook and to share information.” .
(Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Instances)
“People are so used to consume content through social media, through TikTok, through Instagram, through Facebook and to share information,” mentioned DramaShorts co-founder and Chief Working Officer Leo Ovdiienko, 29, in an interview. “I believe it’s only a matter of time before the big players will also come to this stage.”
The corporate works with manufacturing companions in L.A. who make use of actors, writers and crew members who work on the quick-turn tasks, a brilliant spot in a struggling job market.
“The plus side of filming in L.A. is it is the epicenter of Hollywood,” mentioned govt producer, author and director Chrissie De Guzman, who has labored on DramaShorts tasks. “We know how the state of our industry is doing right now, so a lot of talent have moved into the vertical space.”
Although vertical dramas are the size of a film, they’re spliced up into small chapters and produced rapidly. A 100-page script may be shot in only one week versus a month for a function movie.
Every chapter often incorporates a cliffhanger or dramatic second — whether or not that’s a slap or a personality in peril.
“It just hits every little emotional point,” mentioned Caroline Ingeborn, chief working officer at Palo Alto-based Luma AI, which offers micro drama firms with AI instruments. “It hooks you in like this and because it’s so easy to press [Play]. You just need to see the next episode.”
The crew of vertical movie “Sleeping Princess” break between scenes.
(Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Instances)
Labor tensions
With ultra-low budgets, lots of the productions are non-union, prompting some writers and actors to work underneath pseudonyms to keep away from going through sanctions from their unions, mentioned a number of individuals who work on the exhibits.
In an effort to handle the problem, performers union SAG-AFTRA just lately introduced it has created agreements that cowl low-budget vertical dramas.
Writers Guild of America West President Michele Mulroney mentioned in an interview the union is conscious that “there are companies that are trying to do this work non-union, so the guild wants to help our members … in ways that they can work on verticals and make sure they get that work covered.”
Micro drama producers mentioned they welcome speaking with the unions, however questioned whether or not their enterprise fashions may help union contracts.
“We’re not anti-union at all,” mentioned Erik Heintz, govt producer at Snow Story Productions, which makes vertical dramas for platforms together with DramaShorts.
Regardless of labor tensions, these short-form dramas have supplied a key supply of employment for Hollywood employees who’ve struggled to search out jobs as manufacturing has moved out of California.
Corey Gibbons, 44, a director of images, mentioned vertical dramas saved him within the enterprise when different work dried up.
“I have a feeling that we’re on the brink of something that’s really going to change,” Gibbons mentioned. “I’m just excited to be a part of it.”
So was 27-year-old actor Sam Nejad, a former contestant on “The Bachelorette” who began performing in vertical dramas in January. He mentioned he’s landed one or two lead roles a month since then and might earn $10,000 per week.
“It’s a new art,” Nejad mentioned. “The new Tarantinos, the new Scorseses are all coming through this.”
ReelShort’s workplace in Sunnyvale appears extra like a typical Silicon Valley startup than a Hollywood studio.
Jia, the chief govt, sits at a desk in an open ground seating space together with his workers. Alongside the workplace partitions are framed posters with titles like “Prince With Benefits,” “Never Divorce a Secret Billionaire Heiress” and “All the Wrong Reasons.” Jia proudly factors out why every program was notable on a current tour of the area.
“I don’t have money to hire celebrities,” Jia mentioned. “I have 100% rely on story.”
The 46-year-old entrepreneur, who has {an electrical} engineering background, launched his enterprise in 2022. On the time, there wasn’t a lot curiosity from Hollywood studios.
The skepticism adopted the high-profile collapse of Quibi, the startup led by studio mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg and tech govt Meg Whitman, that labored with A-list film stars on sequence that would seem on an app briefly chapters. Quibi raised $1.75 billion, solely to close down roughly six months after launching.
Jia took a distinct strategy. Somewhat than signing costly offers with celebrities, he employed college students or current graduates from schools like USC to work at his firm.
Jia approves the entire micro drama tales at ReelShort, which he says is predicted to generate $1 billion in income this yr.
A ReelShort consultant declined to reveal the corporate’s earnings however mentioned the enterprise is worthwhile.
Jia mentioned ReelShort has 70 million month-to-month energetic customers, with 10% of them paid customers.
The churn — the speed at which clients drop weekly subscriptions — may be greater than 50% at ReelShort, Jia mentioned. That makes it paramount for the corporate to have a gradual stream of content material that entices clients to maintain paying. Presently it has greater than 400 in-house titles and roughly 1,000 licensed titles.
Like others within the style, ReelShort and DramaShorts rely closely on information metrics like buyer retention and paid subscribers to make their content material choices.
“A lot of directors are thinking, when I shoot the film, ‘I don’t care how people think, this is my creation, it’s my story,’” Jia mentioned. “No, it’s not your story. Your success… should be determined by the people.”
