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This episode is brought to you by Neon Sentimental Value isn't just the must see film this season, it's the must feel film of the year. Nominated for nine Academy Awards including Best Picture, Joakim Trier's story of love, family and reconciliation is being hailed by critics as an absolutely breathtaking piece of filmmaking. Starring Oscar nominees Renata Rheinsveh, Stellan Skarsgrd, Inge Abstader, Lilias and Elle Fanning, Sentimental Value is a modern masterpiece. Now playing in select theaters, This episode of the Town is presented by 20th Century Studios. Avatar Fire and Ash don't miss the movie critics are raving is epic and exciting and gorgeous and heartbreaking and stands as one of the greatest films ever made. It's got incredible visuals, jaw dropping action and a cinematic achievement. Avatar Fire and Ash now playing in theaters and now nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects and Best Costume Design. It is Thursday, February 12 Ever since the content recession started in 2023, Hollywood people have been looking for a path back to the peak TV boom times. What if the answer is in shows with episodes that last just 90 seconds? Microdramas I feel like people in town won't shut up about micro dramas, though. The business in this country is still pretty small and surprisingly few seem to understand them. If you're not familiar, these are basically if social media clips were crossed with serial romance novels. Short bursts of content, often one to three minutes, designed for mobile viewing and to get you hooked, often for free, and then you pay to watch more via micropayments or subscription. The content is cheap and often low quality. A lot of ludicrous romances based on Chinese web novels, badly behaving billionaires. Titles like Forever Was a Lie or Waking Up Married to My Crush, that kind of stuff. But they're clearly catching on. Mostly in China and other parts of Asia, but increasingly in this country where revenue from microdramas reached $819 million in 2024, according to one research firm, projected to rise to 3.8 billion by 2030. And globally, the microdrama market is projected to reach $26 billion by 2030. Tons of money flowing into the space and a bunch of companies have popped up to try to capitalize. One of those is Drama Box. It's a Singapore based app. They've got a big production studio in LA and participated in a Disney accelerator program. They're trying to hook US viewers on soapy vertical dramas and they did $55 million in revenue per month in 2025. 7 million in daily active users. It earns money through pay per view subscriptions. It's even hoping to co develop projects with Hollywood talent. So how is that possible when entire shows can cost less than $300,000? That's what I wanted to talk about with my guest Xi Kong Zhu. She's the Drama Box LA based head of studio. She's going to get into the microdrama market right now. What works in this genre of content, how they make money, all of it. Today it's the microdrama boom. Big money from small episodes from the ringer and Puck. I'm Matt Belleny and this is the town. All right, we with Chicon Zhu, who is the head of studio and one of the top LA based executives at Drama Box. Welcome to the show.
B
Thanks for having me, Matt.
A
So I want to get into this. We've been wanting to do a micro drama show for a while because as much enthusiasm as there is out there in the business for this kind of nascent genre, there's a lot of skepticism as well. And some of that has been voiced on the show before. Lucas is not a big fan, but I have been curious about this because we're at this time where everything is coming together. Instagram Reels is coming to television and Netflix is starting to look more like YouTube. And micro dramas are sort of this middle ground. They're not quite social media video and they're vertical but they're not quite TV quality. But there are some pretty effective TV style storytelling devices. So why don't you give us an overview, just a general overview of where the micro drama market is right now, who's watching it, how big it is, what you are doing at Drama Box. Just give us your pitch.
B
Yeah, absolutely, Matt. So I guess to just kind of break down what vertical drama is briefly. It is bite sized mobile phones, mobile first content that are overall like 90 to 120 minutes long and each episode is around a minute to three minutes long. So a whole show is broken down into around 50 to 90 episodes and we normally release them all in one go so people can go and binge it. And it's normally operating on a freemium model, meaning that you can watch the free episodes and unlock the rest by paying. So where the market is right now, I think we're looking at a 12 billion to 14 billion global market by the end of 2026. And this format first started in China and the market has been surging and also it's still 80% of the market is still in China. But I think the US is the fastest growing market right now.
A
And why is that? What is, what is driving that? What are the demos on the US micro drama market?
B
I think in the beginning because I joined this industry in early 2023 and by that time it's mostly women over 45. So I think by that time 70% of the demo were women over 45. And now it is starting to shift. Already we're seeing 46% of the audience who are 18 to 34, still women and. But the highest spender right now are women aged 35 to 55, particularly in the US and the UK.
A
And it's a lot of romance. There's a lot of fantasy romance, sort of heightened romance stuff. You know, my secret billionaire boyfriend. That kind of stuff.
B
Exactly, yes.
A
Is that the only kind of content that performs in the micro drama format or are there others? I know you guys have, you've talked about doing more, but is it primarily the kind of romance and click to see the next little, you know, next little iteration of the romance?
B
Yeah, it's. I think it first started with most of it being romance because this format was born from the web novel space.
A
Like these Chinese web novels.
B
Yes, serving the female readers, female audience with romance. But as the format grows, it is starting to shifting towards a lot more male oriented content and also just family dramas in general with no romance involved. But overall I would say the genre is still heavily revolving around anything drama because it just serves this dopamine cycle for, you know, shorter format for the smaller screens. So drama right now I would say would be the number one genre in this space right now.
A
It's funny that we're talking about this because obviously Quibi was trying a version of this five years ago, six years ago, and they flamed out after six months in part because everything was just so expensive. And I don't think people were quite willing to go to a separate app to watch the kind of stuff that they could watch on YouTube. But you do have a separate app and you guys are getting people to go to this. Is it just that the model has changed and you can only do this kind of content on a hyper micro budget model? Is that the secret sauce here?
B
A lot of things have changed since Quibi. For example, you know, during COVID people really started to cultivate this habit of scrolling on their phone and they start to consume content in a very different way compared to before. I think that really helped people getting used to this mobile first format with the vertical dramas also. Yes, the shows are made really cheap. I think we're looking at around 20, around 2,000 per minute.
A
$2,000 per minute? How is that possible? Like I think people in Hollywood are going to hear that and like their jaws will drop because you can't get out of bed for less than a couple million dollars an episode for a typical Hollywood show. And these are being made at a price. I mean obviously you are not using union labor, you are not using locations. You're filming a lot of these in the same place. But you oversee. How many do you oversee now? Like how many are going at a given time?
B
Right now I think we have around 16 shows in different various stages. Last year my team produced over 80 shows and launched them online.
A
And how do you do them so cheap?
B
I think first of all, like you said, we do non union. Second of all because it is for a smaller format. It is for the phone screen. I think, I think in the early days, in early 2023, we were outputting 540p resolutions but now the platforms really optimized the streaming. So now we can do 1080ps like before. But still, I think what matters shifts when you're doing a mobile first content, for example, you don't need a vast location anymore because the screen is so narrow. You focus more, you put more resource on costume, makeups and very attractive, attractive actors. So those all contribute to a smaller budget. Of course we're still treating people nicely. We do 12 hour shoot days and all that. But it is definitely nowhere near as the union scale.
A
Hot people can go a long way.
B
Yes, exactly.
A
So do you, so do you have the typical audition process? Like who wants, like what do you pay an actor for 12 hours of work?
B
In the beginning, early 2023, you pay $400, $500 for 12 hour shoot day for the main leads who nearly appears in every single scene. So they're basically working for seven to 10 days, 12 hours a day, nonstop. But now, you know, we're starting to have a quote unquote a list in the space now who had several hit shows under their belt who are, I think I'm seeing as high as $2,500 a day for lead talent. But I think most of them are still ranging from a thousand a day.
A
These are not SAG AFTRA actors. And presumably if you want to make it in the industry, you want to ultimately be in the unions. Do these performers for your movies, your microdramas, do they fear that they're not going to be able to get into the big guilds when they're doing this kind of work or have you found that the guilds recognize that this is sort of entry level stuff and that someday these people can be in the traditional Hollywood guilds?
B
That's a really good question. I think in the beginning, people are in. Are stepping into this industry because first of all, it was in the beginning of 2023, it was during the strike, and a lot of people are fresh faces trying to make it, but found no work in Hollywood.
A
Yeah, well, that's persisted.
B
Yes. And they rather start working and, you know, paying their rent than, you know, sitting at home drinking coffee. So I think that's what propelled a lot of people to enter the industry. Not only the talents, but also crews, any creatives, key creatives to enter the space in that early Stage and in 2024, last year, and now it is starting to become a consistent, sustainable work for a lot of people. So I think the guild is also catching up. I don't know if you've heard, but last year, SAG basically put out a SAG agreement for vertical dramas. And I think we're in that kind of Twilight zone right now where we don't know where the format belongs. But I do feel like it's not stopping people from being able to enter the guild if they want to. And eventually we will.
A
You're getting the talent that you want?
B
Yes, yes, we are.
A
What about writers?
B
Sorry, I just want to add one more that we definitely want to work with union actors, of course, but right now we're not getting. We're not tapping into that pool yet.
A
Well, you're going to have to pay for them and the budgets will go up. It could throw off your entire model. All of a sudden you got Teamsters taking people in golf carts from one place to another and charging you 30 bucks an hour.
B
Yeah, that is a luxury for sure.
A
In this space, writers, because it's a particular skill to be able to build to some kind of a cliffhanger every 90 seconds. And it's a unique way to watch this stuff, and it's a unique way to write. So is there a community now of microdrama writers that are just very good at this stuff? Like, where do you find your writing talent?
B
Yeah, I think for writers it might surprise people because in the early days, I started with this company called realshore. In my early days.
A
Sure.
B
And I found that a lot of writers in that company are actually having a game background. So they either. They either wrote for visual novels or interactive novels in the beginning. So they. They're not screenwriters. And for vertical Drama. They transition from that space to film and tv, which is very interesting. And I think they're one of the earliest writers in the space who came from web novels and interactive novels. And now more and more actual screenwriters are also entering into the space. But definitely we're seeing a learning curve here because this format is just so mobile driven, it is so emotional driven. So. So it's not plot driven. So it is basically, I think it is different than a lot of the things that are taught in film schools right now.
A
So this is in the long tradition of soap operas. This is basically a spliced up, emotionally driven soap opera, largely for women they can watch late at night if they're lying in bed, you know, fantasizing. And this is like the next iteration of that.
B
Yes.
A
All right, so this is all about a scale. Scale business. Right. It's not about the individual. So how long does it take to shoot a 120 minute micro drama show that's going to be split up into 50 segments? Are you doing one of these a week? You doing. Is this like the Hallmark holiday movie pipeline where it's just bang em out in two weeks? What is it?
B
Oh, it is very similar to the Hallmark pipeline, actually. We see a lot of talents and crews that came from that space.
A
That's not a surprise.
B
Really. Well, in this space right now, yes. So yeah, so I can maybe just take you from the top, like from script ideation to ready for production. That normally is a month and a month and a half process. And once the production team get the script, they normally have a three to four weeks prep. That's a good amount of prep in this space. And then they shoot the, you know, 100 pages script in the time span of seven to 10 days. And after that post would take around a month or a month and a half. So in total you're looking at around four months from script ideation to screen. So that's the turnaround for these kind of projects.
A
That's about what I would expect. Someone screams in a meeting, he's a billionaire, but he also has a secret. But he also has a secret child. And then the child comes back and then boom, you're off.
B
Right, Right. Yeah. Very, very, very accurate.
A
I'm auditioning right now. I could do this on the side.
C
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A
This is screaming for AI, is it not? How is AI going to impact the production of these microdramas?
B
First of all, AIs always been that kind of sword hanging over our head in the past two years because it.
A
Could completely disrupt you. But it also could be a big tool and there's no rules, there's no guild rules preventing you from putting some prompts into ChatGPT and saying make it like my best friend billionaire but have it be set in the Bahamas. And all of a sudden chatgpt spits out a script, right?
B
I think that is sort of what a lot of the platforms are dreaming of because, you know, way easier for them to produce more scripts. But still like I'm not seeing that being used in this way yet because I think AI is just still not able to write in the way that human rights right now. Even though yes, we do a lot of kind of reboots and reskins reiterations of the same storyline, but you can still clearly see that you need the human creatives to take part in this to have some heart into the process. And to be honest, I think in the early days some of the platforms actually tried the way you said and it did not output anything that's even legible for any production to use, for any platform to seriously consider using them. But on the other hand, AI has been very, very helpful for post production, for the post production workflow. It's helping with optimizing the quality of a lot of vfx. And that's been actually in practice right now as we speak. But you know, like, we know how cautious we want to be around this area. You don't want to feed any actors image into the AI and regenerate anything like that.
A
You don't do that. You don't, you don't, you don't combine your five hottest actors into one AI created super hot actor.
B
Definitely not. Because we know if we do that or any of the platforms do that, that will create a lot of ethical issues basically and that's not something we want to step into. But you know, if we're making a werewolf show and we need a really good looking werewolf, we can generate that through the AI and that's fine.
A
Yeah, that's really funny. Why should traditional Hollywood filmmakers explore this format?
B
I think you must know that, you know, Fox Entertainment, it's, you know, recently took an equity stake in Hollywater, which is the company behind my drama. Well, and you guys, compared to producing 200 vertical series, don't you guys have.
A
A small investment from Disney? I mean you were part of the accelerator program at Disney. So what does that entail? Are they involved in helping you? Are they, you know, you say you want to work with more Hollywood talent. Is Disney helping you there?
B
Well, I think we're definitely trying to find a middle ground or it's a mutually learning process. We're kind of feeding into that curiosity from the whole industry about this genre, about the business model because I think even before last year, vertical drama still very, very niche. And I think last year at some point we hit the tipping point where the mainstream media start to take note of what's happening right now in this space. And a lot of them are curious, a lot of them want to know more about how the business operates. How are we able to make the show so cheap and also make money? How does marketing works? And that's sort of ongoing process where we're exchanging a lot of information with our partners. But yeah, like back to your question. Why should Hollywood care or why should Hollywood people join in on this style or this new format? I guess I think it is the future of storytelling, but it's not going to completely replace traditional legacy media. So for anyone who's interested to just explore a new outlet of telling stories, they can try. They can try. I think it's really fun because I also come from film background. I went to film school at usc. I worked in development from at Turn Entertainment and Three body universe. And before that I just never heard of a thing of vertical drama. So once I joined, I discovered this is completely a different business. And this is high frequency narrative. And compared to legacy media where you develop a story and you make it in, you know, five to six years, we make several shows in four months. And on day three of the release, we'll, we're, we'll, we're able to learn whether it's a hit or it's a flop. So it is a very fast cycle and it is high frequency that could.
A
Be appealing to Hollywood people who are often so frustrated by how long things take. And you can work on a project for 10 years and finally it either comes to a decision on you whether you make it or you not. Like here you get some at least, you know, the ambition is obviously much lower than your typical Hollywood production, but you guys are upfront about that and it's not, you know, it's not like you're pretending that you're, you're making art here. You are making emotional driven videos that will appeal to the audience and the data will tell you where to go. I've read interviews with you where you said that the biggest challenge is customer acquisition costs. So is that basically just finding the audience on social media and targeting them via algorithms to say, oh, if you are liking a series of TikTok videos about this creator, you might like our scripted version of something similar?
B
Yes and no. I think like you said, definitely audience acquisition is one of the biggest thing in this business model. For example, when I talk about marketing, that's what I'm talking about. We're buying traffic on social media platforms to drive traffic to our apps so people can discover the shows that they might enjoy. And that is entirely different thing from how legacy media operates. When they talk about marketing, they're talking about marketing campaign. They have a plan to roll out a certain show. But for us. Yes.
A
Well, they do a lot of social marketing too. It's a hybrid now. But you're not, you're not doing traditional advertising.
B
No, we're doing traffic buying where we're basically breaking down some of the shows into marketable moments, marketable clips, maybe. Some people call it trailer, but it is not exactly that.
A
Too hot. People making out.
B
Right. The most emotionally punchy moments in the show or, you know, emotionally punchy.
A
I love that. That's the term of art for making out.
B
Right. And you know, we try to use those kind of clips to attract people on social media and to, you know, convert the traffic into our platforms. And that is definitely how we're operating right now to acquire the users. And that's also how TikTok, I think, in the early days acquired their users. While, you know, companies like Netflix are just watching TikTok doing that and be like, why are you doing that? But then that works. That's just an entirely different way of acquiring users.
A
Why don't you just hire a bunch of influencers, be your stars? I mean, they would gladly take the opportunity to star in a quote unquote movie or show, and then you could promote it to all of their followers.
B
Yeah, I think that is definitely something that a lot of the platforms are trying to do right now.
A
Get clavicular. Clavicular. This the looksmaxing guy. He'll get frame mogged in a vertical video.
B
All right, I'm writing that down and it's going on to my picture.
A
Craig can translate it for you. Craig's my clavicular translator. He'll tell, tell me all about it. But why? The ultimate question with this business model, as with every digital media business model, is how do you prevent YouTube from putting you out of business? Why is your model something that YouTube cannot subsume and do on its own? Because that was a lot of the criticism of Quibi is that everyone's like, well, okay, you're spending all this money on these original exclusive videos on your platform, but everyone's just going to go to YouTube, just put it there. Why are you producing for YouTube and if not, why? And how do you prevent them from eating your lunch?
B
I think that's a really good question. I might not have the best answers for it, but actually right now all the platforms, all the vertical drama platforms have a YouTube channel and they do monetize through YouTube. And we also have, yes, TikTok as well. And I know TikTok is moving into this space as we speak. They're going to explore a free model for vertical drama viewing. So that's also going to create a lot of new energy in the space and we'll see how it goes.
A
Okay, Craig, do you have anything here? I know you sort of cringe at a lot of this stuff, but it seems to be working.
D
What is the perception around town of microdramas when you're in meetings and you're talking to people? Is the feedback often negative? Is it questioning? Kind of. What is the general vibe when you take these meetings and talk to people?
B
I think the more the most of the sentiment we encounter would be curiosity in general. People are genuinely curious. What is this Format and how is it different from traditional media and why does it work? So they're all very open to hear us and I am seeing a lot of anxious people from Lexi Media who are kind of just nervous about whether this format is going to take over and how can they learn fast.
A
You can make a movie for $300,000. Please leave right now. That's what the producers would say. The studio is probably saying you can make a movie for $300,000. Like you're gonna. We're gonna put you in charge of everything.
B
Yeah, if they're not a union signatory.
A
Right. I know the way this plays out with the guilds will be very interesting. All right. I appreciate you coming on the show. Thank you very much.
B
Thank you so much. Matt and Craig.
A
We are back with the call sheet. Craig, we missed you at the premiere of Goat last weekend. You were not able to attend. I went with my 9 year old son. He ended up meeting Steph Curry, got the coveted autograph. I, I was. You were very jealous.
D
Very jealous. Happy for your son. I hope he recognized that he was in the presence of greatness.
A
Exactly. There were actual goats on the red carpet. You also missed that big weekend at the box office. Goat is actually not the biggest title. It's Wuthering Heights is going to do probably, probably over 50 million. I think the tracking for NRG is at like 45, 47 right now. Even Warner's is admitting it's probably going to do 50. So let's set the line at 50. And what are you saying about Weathering heights? Budget about 80.
D
I would take the over. There's a lot of negative online criticism of this movie, which I would argue means that it's actually pierced the zeitgeist and people care about it. Emerald Fennel is interesting because I feel like her movies are at least Saltburn and now this one seem to be critically, you know, that people are critically skeptical but they're commercially successful and.
A
Well, not Saltburn. Saltburn didn't do much in theaters.
D
It only did like Saltburn crushed on Amazon.
A
It did. And that's why I think Amazon just loved the release. They didn't know what they had. They took it to festivals and positioned it as an awards movie. When it's like, no, no, no, no, no. This is elevated trash. They should have done a big marketing campaign and tried to open it like a normal movie. And I think Warner's learned from that. And they're going for the, the, you know, the, the weekend couples and girls night crowd.
D
Yeah, look she knows how to make steamy, salacious, provocative movies that people want to go see.
A
Well, she has two very hot leads, so that helps. And Margot is a producer on it. This was an interesting one where they packaged it up with MRC and sold it as a package to the highest bidder. And Netflix came in with a bid that was higher than what they ultimately took from Warner Brothers. But they wanted this big theatrical release and I think they're going to get it. I think they're going to get over 50 million. So I'm going to take the over on Wuthering Heights. So let's move on to Goat, which NRG has goat at 3,30 million. And these are for the four day, by the way, the holiday Monday. This is not a three day opening, this is a four day. Sony is saying Goat is going to get to like 20, 25. NRG has it at 30. Sony tends to lowball. So let's put the line at like 27. Where are you on Goat? I saw it. So it's a quality standard kids movie, Rags to riches, underdog sports story. The animation's kind of cool. It's not breaking any ground, you know, thematically. But my kid loved it. He told all his friends. So I'm going to also take the over on 27 for goat.
D
I'm going to have to defer to you on that because Goat is unique in that. I mean there are not many original non IP based animes that are successful. Yes. So this one feels much more risky. And so I defer to you if you. Why do you feel like this one will work?
A
Well, first of all, the budget on these Sony movies is a lot lower than like a Disney original animated movie. It's in, they're saying in the 80 to 90 million. So even if it gets up to 100, that's still less than what you would see. I also think they're getting a lot of promotion. I think this is a basketball oriented movie. It's got a lot of black stars in it. They're promoting it around the NBA All Star Game and on NBA. So I think that it's going to bring in a big demo shift from typical animated animated movies and get a huge black audience and couple that with the general kids and family audience and I think it'll do fine. You know, it was not going to break the bank, but it'll be a solid little hit.
D
You know, one thing that we haven't talked about a lot is how few sports movies come out these days. There used to be a Good sports movie every year or two. And now they are few and far between.
A
I know. You should lobby them when you're running Hollywood. One every quarter.
D
Yeah. Comedies and sports movies.
A
What we're not talking about is the third big movie this weekend, crime 101. Got a bomb alert on that one. Chris Hemsworth. That movie costs like $90 million. They were saying, I think it's probably a little more. I know this was also a competitive bidding environment. Netflix wanted this one and Amazon got it. It's got Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Barry Keegan. Like, this movie is tracking for like 16 million. And I would actually take the under on that. I just don't think it's going to work. Doesn't feel special enough. And the stars, like Chris Hemsworth is a streaming guy now. Outside of Avengers, another potential problem for Amazon. They just had mercy with Chris Pratt. They had the Melania movie. Now they've got crime 101. Like, we're only into the second week of February. That's three underperformers already this year. Potentially.
D
Yeah. A crime movie, though, with Mark Ruffalo and Chris Hemsworth, that's going to be on Amazon Prime. I mean, that's like how to get a dad 101 to watch your movie.
A
Oh, yeah, it'll be fine on. On the service and it'll probably be a rewatchable in like 2030, but I don't know how. Well, the reviews are fine. Not great, but we'll see. All right, that's the show for today. I want to thank my guest, Chicon Ju, producer Craig Horback, artist Jesse Lopez, and John Jones. And I want to thank you. We'll see you next week.
Podcast: The Town with Matthew Belloni
Episode: Should Hollywood Take the Microdrama Boom Seriously?
Date: February 12, 2026
Host: Matthew Belloni
Guest: Xi Kong Zhu, Head of Studio, Drama Box (LA)
In this episode, host Matthew Belloni is joined by Xi Kong Zhu of Drama Box to examine the rapid ascent of “microdramas”—short-form, mobile-first, vertical video series—as a potent and highly profitable new entertainment market. They delve into the mechanics, business models, audience demographics, creative processes, and cultural impact of microdramas, and explore what their popularity means for Hollywood’s future.
Definition and Market Growth
Business Model
Notable Company
"If social media clips were crossed with serial romance novels... Short bursts of content, often one to three minutes, designed for mobile viewing and to get you hooked."
— Matthew Belloni (01:24)
"But the highest spender right now are women aged 35 to 55, particularly in the US and the UK."
— Xi Kong Zhu (05:44)
Quibi Comparison:
Production Pipeline:
"Obviously you are not using union labor, you are not using locations... But you oversee... how many do you oversee now?"
— Matthew Belloni (08:33)
"Now we can do 1080p like before. But still, I think what matters shifts when you're doing a mobile first content… you don't need a vast location anymore because the screen is so narrow."
— Xi Kong Zhu (09:10)
"It is so mobile driven, it is so emotional driven. So it's not plot driven...I think it is different than a lot of things that are taught in film schools right now."
— Xi Kong Zhu (14:07)
"AI has been very, very helpful for post production, for the post production workflow… but you know, like, we know how cautious we want to be around this area."
— Xi Kong Zhu (18:49)
Increasing Institutional Interest:
Appeal for Filmmakers:
"This is high frequency narrative... in legacy media you develop a story and you make it in, you know, five to six years, we make several shows in four months. And on day three of the release, we're able to learn whether it's a hit or it's a flop."
— Xi Kong Zhu (21:20)
"We're buying traffic on social media platforms to drive traffic to our apps so people can discover the shows that they might enjoy. And that is entirely different from how legacy media operates."
— Xi Kong Zhu (23:32)
“Hot people can go a long way.”
— Matthew Belloni (10:01)
“It is so mobile driven, it is so emotional driven...so it is basically, I think it is different than a lot of the things that are taught in film schools right now.”
— Xi Kong Zhu (14:07)
“This is high frequency narrative... you develop a story...in five to six years, we make several shows in four months. And on day three of the release, we're able to learn whether it's a hit or it's a flop.”
— Xi Kong Zhu (21:20)
“We're buying traffic on social media platforms to drive traffic to our apps so people can discover the shows...And that is entirely different from how legacy media operates.”
— Xi Kong Zhu (23:32)
| Timestamp | Topic | |-----------|-------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:55–05:28 | Definition of microdramas, explosive market growth, and Drama Box profile | | 05:28–06:47 | Demographics: who watches and how audience is shifting | | 07:20–10:10 | Quibi comparison, cost structure, and how microdramas are so cheap to produce | | 10:47–12:43 | Union/guild issues, talent flow between industries | | 12:56–15:02 | Writing for microdramas, creative process, and production timeline | | 15:02–16:07 | Production pipeline compared to Hallmark movies | | 17:38–19:35 | AI’s place in microdrama writing/production | | 20:02–22:31 | Why Hollywood should (and is starting to) take notice | | 22:31–24:54 | Marketing, customer acquisition, and difference from legacy media | | 25:22–26:31 | Competition from YouTube/TikTok, platform dichotomy | | 26:38–27:34 | Industry perception: curiosity, anxiety, and labor issues |
The episode compellingly illustrates how the microdrama boom is disrupting traditional entertainment paradigms, offering ultra-fast, emotionally-charged serialized stories to a global, mobile-first audience. While the economic and creative models are entirely distinct from legacy Hollywood, the format is gaining rapid traction—and legacy studios as well as unions are taking notice. Whether microdramas are a passing craze or a permanent fixture, this is a space “everyone in town” is watching—and, increasingly, joining.