Stephen Chow made a short drama and earned 30 million from the first episode?

This article focuses on Stephen Chow's latest short drama "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf", and discusses its debut in the short drama market and the industry attention it has attracted. The article analyzes the development trend of the short drama market, as well as the impact and challenges of Stephen Chow's brand on this emerging field. This article provides unique insights and detailed analysis, and I hope it will help you understand and think.

The micro-short drama market is welcoming the "regular army", and this time, it's Stephen Chow.

On June 2, Stephen Chow's short drama "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" was launched, and the number of views exceeded one million in the first hour. As of press time, the updated first episode has attracted widespread attention in the industry, with more than 31 million views in two days.

As a heavyweight in the domestic comedy industry, the name "Stephen Chow" itself carries a lot of popularity. Especially in the past two years, the output of "Master Xing" has not been high - except for serving as executive producer in last year's animated film "The Monkey King", the last film Stephen Chow directed was "The New King of Comedy" in 2019, and his works have basically been updated every three or four years.

This means that although "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" is a short drama, it has the appeal of "Master Xing" and the audience base will not be weak.

From Chen Sicheng, Wang Jing to Stephen Chow, the fate of the "regular army" is gradually making micro-short dramas from a supplementary shooting method to a standardized and market-oriented one. The "2023-2024 China Micro-short Drama Market Research Report" shows that the market size of micro-short dramas has reached 37.39 billion yuan in 2023, is expected to exceed 50 billion yuan in 2024, and will exceed 100 billion yuan in 2027.

In 2023, the total box office of Chinese films was 54.92 billion yuan, and the market size of micro-short dramas has reached 68% of the film box office.

Ten years ago, online dramas, like today's short dramas, gradually occupied the market share of the traditional film and television industry. Ten years later, micro short dramas are all the rage in the market. For actors and directors who are familiar with long videos, shooting micro short dramas is often ridiculed as "dimensionality reduction strikes", but as short dramas become more and more popular, this ridicule has begun to fade, and instead, audiences chasing short dramas has quietly become a new trend.

However, one problem is, if we invite Stephen Chow, a great director and famous actors, will the short drama definitely win good reputation?

1. Stephen Chow's short drama was not suitable for local conditions

"Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" tells a story about a "pig-killing scam". The main plot revolves around trainee lawyer Ye Xiaolai, who teamed up with anchor Zhu Hao to uncover the truth of the "pig-killing scam" in order to save her sister Ye Xiaohui. From the first episode, it can be felt that the filming team tried to create laughter in the process of their joint adventure through the strong contrast between the Taiwanese girl and the Northeastern boy.

With the golden signboard of "Stephen Chow", whether it is the production team, the cast or the picture quality, you can see that they have put a lot of thought into it. In terms of actors, "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" invited many comedians such as Tu Dou, Jiang Shimeng, Pai Xiaoxuan, Zhang Baiqiao, Xu Zhisheng, etc. to join. In terms of shooting methods, the use of film-level photography art team also ensured the presentation of the short drama.

However, after the first episode was broadcast, it was clearly noticeable that "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" was not adapting well to the short drama industry.

One netizen commented: "If it weren't for Stephen Chow, I might not have clicked on this short drama." The lack of brisk rhythm and the lack of dense setting of explosive points are the most criticized issues. The first episode is more than 6 minutes long, but the plot is still in the foreshadowing stage-this is obviously not in line with the viewing habits of the audience of short dramas. According to the data compiled by the Short Drama Study Room, among the popular short dramas from January to July 2023, 90% of the themes are still "cool", such as God of War, time travel, rebirth, counterattack, etc. are all popular themes.

In the first episode, the only funny thing that netizens caught was the jokes of comedian Xu Zhisheng. He played a company employee who used "sarcasm to speak in a positive way" to imply many social hot spots such as "Japanese nuclear wastewater" and "the rampant shootings in the United States". But this is obviously not "cool", and from the plot of a single episode, there is no sense of ups and downs in the plot. In summary, it is "not catchy enough".

Yi Xiaoxing, the producer of "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf", once said in an interview with "Beijing News", "With Stephen Chow's name, the things you make have to be smaller in scale, and it seems to be lacking something." This may be the reason why "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" avoided the answer of "cool drama" that has been verified by the market, and instead integrated suspense, love, comedy, thriller, action and even science fiction elements into one drama.

Mi Meng, the producer of the popular short dramas last year, such as "The Black Lotus Manual" and "I am a Stepmother in the 1980s", said as early as the WeChat official account era that the most forwarded titles are nothing more than "hot topics, money, sex, and violence". After starting to shoot short dramas, the dramas that have become popular are also closely linked to eye-catching elements such as "revenge", "reversal", and "counterattack". In comparison, the concept and pattern of "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" are there, but whether the plot can attract the audience will be a more difficult challenge.

On the other hand, although it is a short play, "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" is more like a work wrapped in the shell of a traditional film and television drama.

The filming started on April 12 and ended on April 25, taking only 13 days in total. The short shooting period is consistent with the usual characteristics of short dramas, but the shooting technique is reportedly based on the rhythm of a movie, but the plot is divided into 24 episodes. This directly leads to the "movie-like beginning, development, turning point and ending" of the plot, and the viewing experience of a single episode is poor, and in fact, the essence of the short drama is not grasped. In addition, on short video platforms where vertical screen viewing is the mainstream, the horizontal screen shooting method does not conform to the usual viewing habits of the audience of short dramas.

At present, only one episode of "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" has been released, and it will be updated continuously during the Dragon Boat Festival. This method of splitting a movie into short videos has almost never been tried before. Whether it can break the industry conventions depends on whether the plot of the second episode can usher in a hot spot.

2. Compared with the results, it is more important to amplify the "Stephen Chow effect"

The birth of "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" is inseparable from the promotion of short video platforms.

In January this year, Douyin announced that it had reached an exclusive cooperation with Stephen Chow on micro-short dramas, and the two sides jointly developed and operated the "9527 Theater". The name "9527" was taken from Stephen Chow's classic film "Flirting Scholar", in which Stephen Chow played Tang Bohu who sneaked into the palace as a servant, and the servant number used at that time was "9527". According to "New Waner", Douyin and Stephen Chow are expected to receive at least 30 million yuan in remuneration for the 9527 Theater, but it is unclear how many short dramas will be filmed.

E-commerce Online mentioned in "The "Raging" Short Drama, Using 100,000 Costs to Leverage Tens of Millions of Business" that there are different profit-sharing standards for the cooperation between the contractor and the short drama company and platform. The first is the profit-sharing system, where the company and platform will give the contractor a guaranteed income and a profit-sharing income from user payments, which can reach 7% or higher; the second is the buyout system, where the company and platform spend a certain price to buy out the drama, and the contractor cannot obtain subsequent profit-sharing. In terms of profit models, there are also ways such as brand customization, user recharge, and paid subscription.

At present, "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" has not yet started paying TV series, and there is no embedded advertising in the first season, so the revenue is still unknown. However, according to the Short Drama Study Room, the second season of "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" was sold on February 28 this year, with a price of 8 million yuan.

Stephen Chow is a famous brand. If fans pay attention, they will find more than 100 Easter eggs with Stephen Chow elements in "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf", which can be called "super sentimental killer". But how long this head appeal can last may be a question mark.

Some netizens said, "Stephen Chow never understands that the audience likes to watch him, not likes to watch him filming others." Many fans also questioned "Golden Pig, Jade Leaf": "Isn't the star content too low? Stephen Chow neither directed nor acted in it. Is this a real-life version of 'Pig Killing', and am I the one being killed?" Contrary to audience expectations, Stephen Chow served as the producer of "Golden Pig, Jade Leaf", guiding the creation of characters, plot setting, and post-production editing, but he did not act in it and was not a director.

However, even if a famous director takes the stage, it may not necessarily win the audience's favor. Not long ago, Wang Jing, the director of many famous films such as "Justice, My Foot" and "God of Gamblers", took the stage to shoot a short drama and served as the screenwriter and director of "The Billionaire Silly Prince". For this purpose, he also invited "Pomegranate Sister" Yuan Qiongdan to play the mother of the heroine in the play. The whole play has a total of 100 episodes, and the last 90 episodes need to be paid to watch. It costs about 150 yuan to unlock the whole film. But as of press time, the number of views of "The Billionaire Silly Prince" on Douyin is only 8.6 million.

As short dramas have developed to this day, more resourceful and powerful companies and platforms have joined the game. Kuaishou is one of the earliest platforms to enter the market. It launched the "Xingmang Short Drama" brand very early and built a support system for the high-quality short dramas. In January this year, Douyin launched the "Chenxing Plan" to support high-quality content creators, announcing that it would invest up to millions of cash and hundreds of millions of traffic in support of a single work.

It is not difficult to understand the platform's enthusiasm for short dramas - there is a joke in the short drama industry: "Producers and distributors are all working for the platform. Your drama may fail, but the platform will definitely not lose money." This is because, from the production to the launch of a short drama, the cost of streaming will account for 80% or even more of the total cost. There have been media reports that even under relatively ideal conditions, the ROI (return on investment) of the domestic market can reach 1.1-1.2, which means that it takes 1 million yuan to invest in streaming to earn 100,000 yuan.

In addition to the competition between platforms, various roles in the traditional film and television industry chain, this group of "regular troops" are also quietly entering this industry. For example, Chen Sicheng also prepared a short drama of the same name after the movie "Gone Girl" became a big hit.

Can "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" win word of mouth by bringing in Stephen Chow? It is still unknown at present.

But perhaps for short video platforms, word of mouth is no longer so important. Taking advantage of the "Stephen Chow effect", attracting more big directors, famous actors and brands to join, making the pie bigger together, and attracting more small and medium-sized players may be a business that is sure to make money. As for whether the transition from long videos to short videos will encounter "water and soil incompatibility"? When the top practitioners with their own traffic enter the market, constantly explore the gameplay and accumulate experience, the quality of short dramas will inevitably have a qualitative leap, giving birth to a more reputable short drama brand.

Text: Wang Yaqi; Editor: Si Wen

Source public account: E-commerce Online (ID: 1089127)