The Art of Hooking Audiences: Execs From a Disney-Backed Microdrama App Tell All
DramaBox’s creative team came from traditional Hollywood. Now aiming for $3B in revenue, they tell me they’ve had to unlearn almost everything
I write about TV from L.A. and host the podcast Ankler Agenda with Elaine Low. I reported on the plunge in Hollywood jobs and where the opportunities are, sports doc fatigue, brand-funded TV and a top unscripted agent’s take on the market. I’m elaine@theankler.com
Titles of shows currently trending on the microdrama app DramaBox? Fake Dating My Rich Nemesis, I’m Nothing But a Mortal, Pucked By My Brother’s Rival and Watch Out, I’m the Lady Boss.
No, they’re probably not going to win Emmys, but they are commanding the attention — and wallets — of tens of millions viewers across the world. And you should be paying attention.
My colleague Natalie Jarvey of Like & Subscribe and I told you in the spring about the massive boom in microdramas, aka vertical dramas — those short-and-snappy soap operas favored by Gen Z that play out on your phone one cliffhangered, 60- to 90-second episode at a time (Natalie even reported from the set of one of these productions, directed by a top star of the format, Kasey Esser).
Some folks have been dismissive — the Quibi vibes are strong — but so much about this niche industry has changed just in the five months since we first covered it. Exhibit A: DramaBox, one of the four companies chosen to participate in this year’s Disney Accelerator program, which offers growth companies investment capital, mentorship and potential collaborations with the Walt Disney Co.
I popped over to the Disney studio lot in Burbank on Wednesday for the culmination of the four-month long program, a demo day that gave investors, industry partners and Disney execs a look inside Haddy’s large-scale 3D printing, Animaj’s AI-powered animation and LIMINAL Space’s holographic LED display technology (Guardians of the Galaxy’s Rocket chatted with us in sharp 3D, and we didn’t have to wear bulky VR headsets).
A major theme of the day was “speed to market,” a phrase I heard in nearly every presentation. People want more stuff, sooner, and scripted TV in its current formulation can take a long time to make. For the accelerator’s fourth company, DramaBox, it takes mere months to get a story from page to screen. The company’s head of studio, Shicong Zhu, who oversees production in L.A., says her team alone released more than 60 titles this year. (L.A. is just one of half a dozen international production hubs for the company, which is part of the Singapore-headquartered StoryMatrix.) While Disney doesn’t disclose its exact investment in its Accelerator participants, the selection of DramaBox indicates a shift as legacy Hollywood increasingly finds its way into the microdrama space — for DramaBox, the setup widens its relationships in the industry, gives it access to valuable Disney resources and gives it a stamp of Hollywood credibility.
With 50 million-plus monthly active users, DramaBox CEO Ruiqing Chen tells me (through a colleague who translated for him) that the app — which relies on both ads as well as paying subscribers who buy tokens to watch more episodes — is experiencing its highest revenue growth in North America, while user base growth is the fastest in Southeast Asia. While Chen would not disclose DramaBox’s current revenue picture (it’s the second-largest microdrama player according to Sensor Tower), he says he hopes the privately held company will surpass the $3 billion annual revenue mark in the next five years.
Today I’m sharing with you a fascinating interview with DramaBox heads of development Kelly Tang and Christianne Cruz. Here’s what you’ll learn:
Exact budgets and the whiplash timelines for the company’s U.S.-produced shows
How DramaBox can respond to viewer data and feedback to tweak an existing series — “the enhanced version”
What Tang and Cruz bring from their experience in traditional entertainment to the microdrama process, and what they leave behind
Which genres besides romance DramaBox is looking to enter next
Where DramaBox teams go to mine for “very hooky, very addictive IP”
What male microdrama viewers — a growing segment — are looking for
How screenwriters are re-learning how to write for instant-gratification audiences
How the format is offering a new on-ramp to break into Hollywood