Stephen Chow enters the short drama After
became popular, the short drama industry welcomed its first major film and television star.
On January 29, Douyin officially announced an exclusive cooperation with Stephen Chow on high-quality short dramas. The two parties will jointly develop and operate the "9527 Theater", and the first batch of works is already in production. The first comedy work "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" is produced by Stephen Chow, supervised by Yi Xiaoxing, and starred by A-list actresses. The first season is expected to be launched on Douyin in May this year.
The name "9527 Theater" comes from the "9527" stalk that has appeared many times in Stephen Chow's works. In the movie "Tang Bohu Spots Autumn Fragrance", the number of Tang Bohu played by Stephen Chow who sneaks into Washington as a servant is "9527" .
It is understood that through cooperation with Douyin, Stephen Chow will join hands with outstanding young creators as a sponsor to directly create content for users based on the Douyin account of "Director Stephen Chow's Works".
In 2023, short dramas will become popular from the content track to the capital market. This is not only a year of rapid development in the short drama industry, but also a year of breaking out of the industry.
According to iiMedia Consulting data, China’s online micro-short drama market size will be 37.39 billion yuan in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 267.65%, and its volume is close to 70% of the film market. It is expected that the market size in 2027 will exceed 100 billion yuan.
has a promising market size, from leading short video platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou, to traditional film and television companies such as Mango Super Media and Huayi Brothers, to online literary platforms such as Chinese Online and Palm Reading, and even Tencent Video , iQiyi and other long-form video platforms, upstream and downstream of the industry chain, have increased their deployment.
Just recently, Douyin just released a high-quality micro-short drama "Chenxing Project". According to this plan, high-quality content creators from all industries can receive up to 5 million cash and 100 million traffic support. This is the first time Douyin has released a short drama support plan for the entire industry.
During the same period, Kuaishou also clarified the five major content directions for 2024, planning to launch 20 short dramas with relevant content, and provide billion-level resource exposure and special platform operations, while increasing support for native paid short dramas. Moreover, Kuaishou has launched an independent short drama app Xifan.
But it only takes a year or two for short dramas to go from their infancy to their rapid growth. During this period, the themes of most short dramas were mainly about time travel and rebirth, grassroots counterattacks, and the secrets of wealthy families. The plots showed characteristics such as "reversal", "conflict", "exaggeration", "local flavor" and "dog blood", thus attracting attention.
iiMedia Consulting CEO Zhang Yi analyzed in an interview with a reporter from the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily that the uneven quality of content, and poor content and even value guidance in some short dramas are a major pain point in the short drama industry. With the rapid expansion and strong emergence of the short drama market in 2023, high-quality products have become an industry consensus.
On the one hand, the audience’s aesthetic interests have improved and their demand for high-quality content has become stronger. On the other hand, the supervision of the micro-short drama industry has gradually become stricter, and major platforms have also strengthened governance, making the micro-short drama industry enter the "high-quality" stage from "extensive".
In Zhang Yi’s view, Douyin’s collaboration with Stephen Chow has given the industry a good start, and more professionals will be involved in this market in the future.
In fact, before Stephen Chow left the company, a large number of professional film and television organizations had entered the micro-short drama market, including Huayi Brothers, Ningmeng Film and Television, Huace Film and Television, Mango Super Media, etc. The entry of these professional institutions into the market not only means more sufficient funds and resources, but more importantly, it brings stricter production standards and quality control.
"The employment structure of short drama producers is changing. Traditional film and television practitioners are joining with richer technical means and experience, which is also accelerating the arrival of high-quality short dramas," Zhang Yi said.
However, a high-quality short drama cannot only be achieved by relying on a famous director and IP. At present, Stephen Chow has not made it clear whether he will personally direct the corresponding short plays in the future. At least judging from the personnel information of the first work "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf", Stephen Chow is the producer and the producer is Yi Xiaoxing. He is the director of the web series "Unexpectedly".
MiLi Pictures CEO Zhang Qing told reporters that making a high-quality work depends on the cooperation of the entire executive team including the director and actors.However, Stephen Chow's entry will generally drive the overall quality of short dramas to develop in a high-quality direction.
Source: Financial Associated Press
