Microdramas are Minting New Six-Figure Careers: 'Faster You Can Get in, the Better'
SCOOP: A Luigi Mangione drama drops next; the genre's top exec and star on how writers, actors, agents can tap into a (non-union) $5B Gold Rush
I write about TV from L.A. I reported on how L.A. sound stages are scrambling to pivot as SoCal production dwindles, and I interviewed Universal TV president Erin Underhill about the new deal structure her studio is beta-testing with writers. I’m at elaine@theankler.com
Hello from 4,500 feet up in the Canadian Rockies — where I’ve got some news about an entirely new genre of TV that has sprung up seemingly overnight and is raking in revenue (if not much profit, yet).
For the next few days I’m at the Banff World Media Festival in Alberta, where yesterday I moderated a Showrunner Superpanel with St. Denis Medical co-creators Justin Spitzer and Eric Ledgin, OG Dexter showrunner Daniel Cerone, Dr. Death showrunner Ashley Michel Hoban and Canada’s own Jennifer Whalen — a triple threat two times over as co-creator, showrunner and star of CBC series Small Achievable Goals and Baroness von Sketch Show. They broke down their showrunning styles, their thoughts on AI, and the elusive target of what buyers want now.
Should any of you happen to be here in Banff today, I’ll be going one-on-one in conversation with Tubi CEO Anjali Sud this afternoon, and on Wednesday I’m moderating a panel on AI that promises to get conversations started and, I presume, emotions high about the future of the industry.
Banff is my latest stop this spring as The Ankler ping-pongs from Vegas to Vancouver with high-level programming — including a May event in conjunction with the Directors Guild of America, and presented by Threads, where Lesley Goldberg, Katey Rich and I interviewed eight of TV’s top directors. Now you can hear those Q&As over two podcasts recorded live at L.A.’s DGA Theater: The first one, out today, includes Alethea Jones, who directed the pilot for ABC hit High Potential, plus helmers Yana Gorskaya of FX’s What We Do in the Shadows, and Lucia Aniello of Hacks (also co-showrunner of the HBO Max comedy). Look out for the second episode in Lesley’s column Wednesday, or whenever you get your podcasts (listen on Apple podcasts here, and like and subscribe here to get it in your feed).
Now, let’s get to it.
This week’s newsletter is a bit of a wakeup call (and maybe a hopeful one) for traditional Hollywood: I teamed up with my excellent colleague Natalie Jarvey of Like & Subscribe — where she covers the booming business of the creator economy — to dig into the world of microdramas, a robust industry operating right under the nose of legacy studios. Sometimes known as vertical dramas or mini-dramas (a consensus genre label is sure to emerge soon), these series are filmed vertically and typically have dozens of episodes — or chapters — lasting no longer than 60-90 seconds each.
This format, wildly popular in China and elsewhere in Asia, where mobile screens dominate entertainment consumption even more than in the U.S., first started grabbing American audiences about three years ago via apps like ReelShort, with content easily reposted on YouTube or TikTok. On the surface, microdramas are easy to dismiss as cheesy junk food: The acting can be broad, the stories over-index on billionaires, vampires and werewolves and the plot twists are sharp — all the better to keep you swiping to the next installment. These projects hire non-union actors and crew, and more than a few times the writing has been derisively accused of being AI-generated.
But microdramas are suddenly booming, and like YouTube and other social media phenoms that came before, this emerging market is snatching up viewers who might otherwise be tuning in to Netflix or HBO. I spoke with the CEO of ReelShort, Joey Jia, who tells me from the company’s Culver City offices that he’s tripled his full-time workforce over the last year to more than 1,000 employees. ReelShort, not even three years old, brings in more than $1 billion in revenue annually, Jia says (yes, billion with a B), from in-app purchases and advertising combined.
Amid a desperately barren job market for performers and Hollywood crews, this is a space that presents opportunity. Natalie had a chat with Kasey Esser, a non-union actor who went from making $500 a day in 2023 to $30,000 to $40,000 a month (!) this year as a leading man in these soapy, telenovela-style shows. (Paid subscribers can see his work below.)
Microdramas may share DNA with Lifetime or Hallmark films and the oft-disparaged (yet tremendously lucrative) romance publishing industry, but the major players are also looking to venture beyond those genres, including adventure and fantasy.
ReelShort shared with The Ankler exclusively that it is premiering a new microdrama, The Adjuster, a fictionalized version of the story of Luigi Mangione, the man accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. The vertical dramatization adds romantic tragedy to the mix: “After his wife dies due to losing health coverage, Matteo Leone, a broken man, takes justice into his own hands by killing the CEO of an insurance company,” the synopsis reads, in part. The series, sure to be provocative and perhaps draw new attention to ReelShort, will be released on June 14. (That’s a day after the premiere of Luigi the Musical in San Francisco, for everyone keeping track.)
More and more voices in Hollywood are buzzing around the emerging format. On my shuttle ride from the Calgary airport to Banff, a Toronto producer next to me struck up a conversation. Her first question, of course, was what I thought of Trump’s proposed 100 percent film tariffs. Not long after that, she asked me what I thought of vertical dramas. She had recently been approached to produce one.
Buckle in and bone up, because microdramas are positioned for impact that is the opposite of micro in Hollywood, and you’ll be talking about them at your next lunch if you haven’t already.
So in this week’s Series Business, let’s look at:
The economics of microdrama apps — and how three dominant players are capturing the lion’s share of a booming market
Where traditional agents may or may not fit into this business
What to know about becoming a vertical drama scribe — and how much you will work and make if you can master the cliffhanger
How ReelShort and others rebuilt story structures for mobile users
How revenue is collected through a “coin” economy
How actor Esser racked up 42 roles and a six-figure income
The huge ad opportunity: How microdrama apps can own global mobile-first audiences
Why Esser says there’s just a 6–12 month window left to break in
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The unions are rightfully dead.
All of us non-union types get eviscerated on Facebook when folks see what garbage we're producing, but I'm also the guy who made 7 figures last year on this trash and will keep throwing money at 90 second episodes that are paying revenue right away, not years later.