Some popular dramas with middle-aged and elderly themes. Stills from the short play
The fire of the short play has spread to the elderly circle.
The middle-aged heroine decided to get married after the first blind date with the hidden richest man. The daughter-in-law disliked the heroine's mother-in-law for being poor and kept making things difficult for her. The boss bought famous brands to support the heroine's wife... "Flash Marriage My Wife Is a Rich Family" is about middle-aged and elderly people. Each episode of the short drama about a flash marriage love story is only about one and a half minutes long, but the seemingly clichéd and earthy plot quickly went out of fashion after it was released. The latest data from
wetrue shows that after its launch on August 27, "Flash Marriage My Wife Is a Rich Family" topped the popularity list for five consecutive days. As of press time on September 5, the cumulative views of the show reached 360 million.
Beijing News Shell Finance reporter found that the current themes of short dramas for middle-aged and elderly people are mostly based on "parents' shortcomings", integrating elements such as children's education, family reunion, marriage and love life, career struggle and other elements. Short dramas for middle-aged and elderly people are "breaking out of the siege" with exciting points that directly hit the audience's tastes.
Shuyi Culture Studio screenwriter Xiao Qi said in an interview with the Beijing News Shell Finance reporter that the average quotation for elderly-themed scripts is 15,000 yuan, and the quotations for screenwriters with hit scripts can exceed 50,000 yuan.
However, from the perspective of the industry, short dramas and ordinary scripts for middle-aged and elderly people are still "changing the soup without changing the medicine". The protagonists are replaced by men and women in their fifties and sixties, and some elements related to middle-aged and elderly people are added. It became a screenplay.
A middle-aged heroine and a hidden richest man decided to get married on the first blind date. Stills of "Flash Marriage: My Wife Is a Rich Family"
Blind date, flash marriage, square dance battle, the hit short drama for middle-aged and elderly people hit the spot
Nowadays, the short drama for middle-aged and elderly people has accurately attracted fans through male and female channels in terms of subject matter. Liang Lili, the founder of the "Short Drama Study Room" in the
industry community, told Shell Finance reporters that male channels use dual identities to increase the sense of pleasure, while female channels always use the heroine to endure humiliation and sacrifice for the family to emotionally pull. In addition, there are some themes in male videos focusing on the theme of a loving father, and there are also many themes in female videos about sweet love and middle-aged and elderly heroines.
Shell Finance reporter noticed that the male video drama "Old Paoer on the Battle of Father and Son Soldiers" focuses on hiding identities, reverse slaps in the face, and father-son affection. Wetrue data shows that as of September 5, this drama has appeared on the daily popularity list 12 times. The female-channel short drama "Flash Marriage at 50" is recognized as the industry's first hit "sweet pet drama for middle-aged and elderly people". The plot revolves around the family's shortcomings, including blind dates and flash marriages between middle-aged and elderly people, disputes over square dancing, sons' gambling debts and the recognition of their children. etc., both the male and female protagonists are played by middle-aged and elderly people, and multiple "miserable first and then exciting" plots directly hit the audience. After being launched in June this year, as of September 5, the number of plays on Douyin reached 91.955 million.
wetrue data shows that among the user profiles of the two dramas, more than 74% of the viewers of the former are over 31 years old, and 42.37% of the latter are over 41 years old.
Audience portrait analysis of the short play "Flash Marriage at Fifty Years Old". weture data screenshot
Ma Jun, a partner of Henan Mangzhong Film Company, told Shell Finance reporters that the family urban short drama "Three Sons Respect Their Mother" produced by the company at the end of June this year became a "small hit" in this genre after it was launched.
"Other similar themes may only have one adopted son, but our drama is about three adopted sons honoring their mother and slapping one biological son in the face. There are many contradictions, conflicts and reversals in the plot, and it also incorporates many social phenomena. It is very refreshing. Doubling it can attract the audience." Ma Jun believes that the script's entry point is relatively novel, coupled with the very exciting plot setting, it has resonated with the audience.
The topic "Three Sons Respect Their Mother" has been hotly discussed. Screenshot
From Lili Liang’s point of view, the popularity of this type of subject matter is related to the current overall competitive environment of short dramas, the characteristics of short dramas and user portraits. “After the short dramas come out in 2022, the short dramas on the market have gradually emerged from male videos like God of War to The actors in various female video dramas are mainly young people, and competition is becoming increasingly fierce. This has forced the entire industry to find some differentiated solutions and innovations, which ultimately gave rise to the emergence of short dramas for middle-aged and elderly people. Full set, advertising placement on the road
The popularity of short dramas for middle-aged and elderly people is inseparable from the "following the trend" characteristic of the short drama industry.As for the monetization method, it is no different from other short dramas, mainly relying on user payment and platform sharing. Public data from
shows that the short drama industry has close to 70% of middle-aged and elderly viewers, who have also become the main payers. According to industry insiders, short dramas continuously arouse the audience's emotions by setting up intensive points of joy, tragedy and abuse. Afterwards, some of the clips are streamed on the platform, which becomes a "hook" to attract viewers to pay.
Shell Finance reporter saw on Douyin that the platform for "Three Sons Respect Their Mother" is Reunion Theater. The show has a total of 68 episodes, and payment starts from the 15th episode. If you want to purchase the full episode, you need to recharge Douyin diamonds, with a total price of 756 diamonds. , you need to pay 311 diamonds after discount, worth 45 yuan.
Each theater also has a mini program on Douyin, and recharging to unlock dramas has become mainstream. On the Manson Theater mini program, if the audience wants to unlock an episode of "Three Sons Respect their Mother", they need to pay 300 gold coins. They can spend 29.9 yuan to get 2990 gold coins, 39 yuan to get 3900 gold coins, etc., or pay 365 yuan to realize all the benefits on the platform. The short drama is free to watch for 365 days.
Viewers need to recharge to watch the full episode. Screenshot of the Manson Theater mini program
According to Ma Jun, the revenue of the show mainly comes from the platform’s account sharing. “Generally speaking, the investment channel is to recharge the short play with 6 points of turnover, but it needs to be completed several times of the minimum before it can be paid. There are some other monetization channels. I estimate that the recharge amount of this drama is around 10 million yuan, and the final producer may receive 200,000 to 300,000 yuan.”
Currently, the related parties of the middle-aged and elderly short drama include Meiya. , Jiuzhou, Zhangwan, Tianqiao, Dianzhong, etc. Malya focuses more on female-channeled dramas, such as "I Am Mom", " Mom Don't Cry", "Child Wants to Support But Can't Wait", etc. Tomato focuses more on male-channeled middle-aged dramas, such as "Old Paoer's Story" "Father and son go into battle", "Father and son, dog" and so on.
Ma Jun believes that short dramas can open up more monetization channels in the future, including adapting them according to the habits of middle-aged and elderly users, such as short dramas on buses and subways, short dramas on home TV, etc.
advertising placement and customized short plays also target this market. Previously, many beauty brands such as Hanshu, Proya, and Marubi have already tested the short drama track. Last year, Han Shu collaborated with "Jiang Shiqi", the leading figure on the Douyin platform, to launch 5 short dramas including "Dressed with Growth", "Heart Beats More than a Moment" and "A Beam of Sunshine and a Beam of Love", which attracted a lot of attention in the super industry. 5 billion views. The "Jiang Shiqi Same Style" red waist set gift box priced at 399 yuan has currently sold more than 5 million sets on Douyin.
"The purchasing power of middle-aged and elderly people is still very high. If advertisers in the health care category are willing to try customized short dramas and accurately target middle-aged and elderly users, the conversion effect should be good." Liang Lili said.
The quotation of popular scripts can exceed 50,000, and homogeneity has forced industry optimization content
Although short dramas for middle-aged and elderly people are regarded as "replacing the soup without changing the medicine", it is not without innovation.
Xiaoqi said that when creating short dramas from the perspective of the elderly, whether it is the plot setting, character relationships or speaking methods, the content of the script must be adjusted to satisfy the enjoyment of middle-aged and elderly people - emotional trivia. , short-lived parents, unsatisfactory sons, overbearing husbands, etc.
According to Xiaoqi, the average quote for scripts about middle-aged and elderly people is 15,000 yuan, and the quotes for screenwriters with hit scripts can exceed 50,000 yuan.
"If the subject matter becomes popular, the price of the script will increase. The platform that accepts scripts mainly sets prices based on the screenwriter's qualifications, whether there has been a hit drama, and the quality of the script itself." Xiaoqi told reporters.
Shell Finance reporters saw on Xiaohongshu that people with the names of platforms such as Jiuzhou, Shanhai, Tianqiao and other platforms were "collecting scripts" online. Among them, the themes for middle-aged and elderly people included sweet pets, sadomasochism, family love, etc. A request for submissions issued by a receptionist shows that contributors need to provide an outline, character introduction, and drama content ranging from 6 to 15 episodes. Female channels can include marriage first, love later, family ethics, etc., while male channels include "God of War" ", the little guy's counterattack, etc.
's request for receiving articles specifically states some requirements, such as avoiding mother-in-law and daughter-in-law as the main line, avoiding extreme family affection, extreme revenge and abuse, etc. The manuscript fee starts at 15,000 yuan + share, and the price can be adjusted based on the screenwriter's past performance.
As a producer, Ma Jun said that when selecting short play scripts for middle-aged and elderly people, the popularity of the subject matter, the excitement of the story, the novelty and completeness of the entry point will be taken into consideration. “We have to see whether the script is consistent with ours. The audience can get close enough to their lives to resonate with them. In addition, we will also evaluate the production cost of the entire drama. "
According to Ma Jun, the production cycle of "Three Sons Respect Their Mother" is 29 days. The production cost is more than 400,000 yuan, and the cast and crew's salaries account for 60%-70%. The production cost is average in the industry. "It's common for modern urban men and women to frequently choose leading roles and usually require popular actors, but short dramas about middle-aged and elderly people are relatively new, and we consider more about the acting skills of the actors."
Ma Jun told the Shell Finance reporter that starting from April last year , the salary expenses of actors and actresses have increased significantly. "Last year, the price of hiring a male and female lead for a day might have been three to four thousand, but this year many of them cost five to six thousand, or even ten to twenty thousand yuan." Ma Jun revealed that currently, middle-aged and elderly people The prices of male and female protagonists are relatively stable, with the market price at 3,000-5,000 yuan, which is in the middle.
Currently, there is a homogeneity problem in short dramas about middle-aged and elderly people, which is also a long-standing phenomenon in the short drama market. In addition, there are many voices who believe that such short dramas are "too embarrassing" and that some vulgar and overly emotional content will have a negative impact on middle-aged and elderly people and family relationships.
Regarding this, Ma Jun believes that it may be mainly because part of the plot is divorced from life, and the screenwriter has some conjectures and imaginations in the creation process. In Liang Lili’s view, as the short drama review and filing system and supervision gradually tighten, the industry will be forced to optimize content and “reduce the use of extreme methods to gain attention or spread negative energy. In the future, some time-travel dramas, period dramas, Rebirth dramas can also enter the field of short dramas for middle-aged and elderly people.”
Liang Lili believes that the vigorous development of short dramas for middle-aged and elderly people is also very beneficial to help middle-aged and elderly people find employment.
Beijing News Shell Finance Reporter Wei Boya Editor Wang Jinyu Proofreading Yang Li
