Short drama successfully sneaks into the Spring Festival schedule

Last Spring Festival, there were hit dramas such as "Kuang Biu". Which movies and TV series will stand out during this year's Spring Festival? Let's take a look at the author's introduction to the movies and TV series that were popular during the Spring Festival.

The short drama that was popular last year once again brought the story of "creating wealth" and "traffic" during this year's Spring Festival.

On the one hand, a vertical screen short drama titled "I was a Stepmother in the 1980s" was launched through a mini program. It not only became a popular drama on social media platforms such as Douyin, Weibo, and Bilibili, but also the online rumor that it had a one-day recharge record of more than 20 million yuan, which sparked heated discussions in the industry. On the other hand, the short drama "Give Her a Handle" produced by Tencent Video has topped the site's hot search list and Weibo hot search list many times. The site's hot list even surpassed the long drama "In the Blizzard Time" starring top stars such as Wu Lei and Zhao Jinmai, which was pre-screened at the same time... The short drama can still sustain its own "wealth-making myth", and at the same time, it has even stood in a position to directly challenge the top long video dramas.

In the Internet age, regardless of subject matter, duration, or horizontal or vertical screen, whether or not to attract users’ attention and viewing time has become an important criterion for judging the success of content products. Nowadays, although thousands of netizens still praise the “earthy” and “cool” nature of short dramas, with the continuous improvement of platforms, schedules, and standardization, short dramas have long become a form of expression that every artist cannot underestimate.

The first fire of this year, which was ignited during the 2024 Spring Festival, also indicates that the acceleration of the short drama express train will not stop.

1. Why did “I was a Stepmother in the 1980s” stand out from the crowd?

The reason why short plays can capture more and more audiences is that "coolness" is an indispensable element, guiding the audience to pay for it emotionally.

Statistics from Shangguan News show that nearly half of the short dramas originated from the transformation of online literature. These popular online literatures themselves have the element of "coolness", such as encountering a domineering president who falls in love with me, a bullied son-in-law who counterattacks, a man who owes millions of dollars in debt and travels back to ancient times to become an emperor, or sweet love dramas, abusive love, etc.

"I was a Stepmother in the 1980s" was also transformed from an online novel, and the original text was serialized in Tomato Novel.

In the story, the heroine wakes up and finds that she has traveled back to the 1980s. Not only is she a fake daughter who was kicked out of her home, but she is also forced to marry the divorced hero in the countryside by her adoptive parents. She originally thought that the hero was from a poor family and a bad person, but unexpectedly, he is a handsome man with money and two children, and the two live a happy life.

In addition to the conventional routines of a cool drama, the biggest coolness of this drama lies in the character of the heroine who is angry with everyone and relatives. She often fights back against various difficulties and unreasonable troubles with sharp words and decisive actions. The main theme is "If someone throws mud at me, I will blackmail him for 88,000 yuan." This kind of grievance that never stays overnight and never wastes energy is very likable. The practical and relieving quarrel routines in the drama have also become a "learning courseware" passed on by word of mouth by netizens, who say that watching it "is conducive to breast dredging." Compared with the sweet and abusive love of girls protected by domineering bosses in traditional film and television dramas, the heroine breaks away from the passive role of waiting for the male protagonist to save her. This cool feeling is more plain and also provides a reference for the audience to deal with interpersonal relationships in real life.

Sun Yi, the chief producer of the micro-short drama "The Young Lady in Charge of the House", said in an interview with Yingshi Dushe that in the past two years, the content of film and television has shown a trend of "middle-aged women", and creators have begun to pay attention to the ideas and living conditions of mature women. "Many young mothers have simple wishes. They hope that their partners are obedient, that they are rich enough, and that they have a say." He also incorporated this creative idea into the creation of "The Young Lady in Charge of the House". The heroine in the play has a clear distinction between love and hate, and she will avenge her grudges. She is also praised by many fans as a "breast hero" who can relieve emotions.

Although "I Was a Stepmother in the 1980s" does not have a Douban rating, the comments from netizens on the social platform are mainly reflected in "the plot is super cool, and the emotional intelligence and EQ are high", "the male and female protagonists have natural acting skills, and the costumes and makeup are retro and have a sense of the times". Some netizens also said that "I have never seen an idol drama that travels back to the 1980s before" and feel fresh about this type of subject matter.

Another reason why millions of netizens are attracted to the drama is the looks of the male and female protagonists. In this era when ugly men in the domestic entertainment industry often cause controversy when playing modern and ancient idols, the male protagonist, who looks like a combination of Huo Jianhua and Xiao Zhan, has been sought after by netizens. Although his private life is controversial, it did not stop the male protagonist from posting a thank-you Weibo post about "looking like a certain senior", which received more than 40,000 likes.

In addition to the eye-catching plot and the good looks of the male and female protagonists, the popularity is also an important factor that makes this short drama stand out.

During the Spring Festival, "I was a Stepmother in the 1980s" was streamed on multiple platforms such as Douyin, Xiaohongshu, and Weibo. The first 10 episodes can be watched for free. If you want to watch subsequent episodes, you can choose from a variety of payment methods such as single episode recharge, 39.9 yuan to unlock the full episode, and membership recharge. The viewing channel also jumped from the Douyin video collection to Douyin, WeChat and other platform mini-programs.

Whether it is the concentrated embodiment of the advantages of short dramas in terms of plot and character setting, or the outstanding appearance and CP feeling of the male and female protagonists, as well as the full development of the flow effect, "I was a Stepmother in the 1980s" fully demonstrates the "integration" of all elements and paths behind the popularity of a short drama, and in 2024, such short drama success rules may be continuously replicated.

2. Cultivate "watching short plays" into a "new custom" during the Spring Festival

Before the 2024 Spring Festival, the short drama industry experienced two months of strict supervision. Douyin, Kuaishou and multiple WeChat platforms have issued relevant announcements and removed many short dramas from the shelves, including the highly-regarded "Black Lotus Manual", mainly for "exaggerating extreme revenge" and "containing content with bad values".

With the official arrival of the Spring Festival period, the short drama industry, which has been working hard, has reported that there are "more than 800 short dramas occupying the market", which can be divided into three categories. These include vertical screen micro-short dramas such as "I was a Stepmother in the 1980s" launched on WeChat, Douyin mini-programs or related short drama apps; they also include high-quality short dramas launched by short video platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou in conjunction with short video creators to create the concept of winter vacation and Spring Festival period; in addition, they also include short dramas that are broadcast online on long video platforms with horizontal screen as the main viewing method, which have obtained online drama distribution licenses or even domestic TV drama distribution licenses.

At a time when long and short video platforms are working together, in addition to the above-mentioned "I was a Stepmother in the 1980s" and "Give Her a Handle", there are also many high-quality short dramas that have created commercial value, industry breakthroughs and traffic topic effects during this Spring Festival.

During the 2024 Spring Festival, the number of views of Kuaishou's Xingmang short dramas increased by 41% year-on-year. Among them, "Super Office Worker" starring well-known actors Yin Zheng and Guo Xiaoting won the Tmall sponsorship, with a playback volume of nearly 300 million; "Little Nian Beast and Monster Catcher" created by the creators of "Escape from the British Museum" was simultaneously broadcast on Kuaishou, Douyin, and Mango TV platforms. Mango TV even broadcast it on Hunan Satellite TV along with short dramas such as "Auntie's World New Year Edition"; IP derivative short drama versions of top film and television dramas such as "Go to a Windy Place", "Lion Boy", and "Little Nyonya" such as "My Way Home is Windy", "Surpass! Ajuan", and "Little Nyonya at the End of the World" were also pushed to this Spring Festival by the platform...

On the one hand, Douyin, Kuaishou and long video platforms that have been working on short dramas for a long time focus on "high-quality" and diversified types. On the other hand, mini programs, which have thoroughly hyped up the concept of short dramas, still focus on themes of male and female dramas during the Spring Festival, and continue to be extreme in terms of earthiness and excitement. For example, the female-oriented "I was a Stepmother in the 1980s", "Mr. Pei Wants to Be Treasured by His Son Every Day", "Mr. Li, You've Got the Wrong Wife", and the male-oriented "The Trial", "The Godfather", "The Return of the Rich Family", etc. Short drama practitioners said that they had stockpiled a number of female-oriented dramas before the New Year, hoping to win a place during the Spring Festival.

However, according to the data from multiple platforms compiled and analyzed by Xinwaner, the total consumption of short dramas during the Spring Festival this year was about 800 million yuan, and the film Spring Festival period was 8 billion yuan. In comparison, short dramas still have a long way to go before big screen blockbusters such as "Hot and Sprint 2". However, in the absence of national dramas such as "The World" and "The Rush" on long video platforms this year, the relatively tepid performance of the drama market during the Spring Festival is indeed not as good as the unexpected success of the short drama category.

As the ability of short videos to penetrate the grassroots continues to be demonstrated, watching short dramas during the Spring Festival is gradually becoming a "new custom", successfully seizing users' fragmented time.

In this regard, some short drama practitioners said that the daily consumption during this year's Spring Festival set a new record, with at least one day exceeding 100 million, and the other days also had a consumption of 80-90 million. However, due to the lack of a truly popular hit, the short drama did not usher in a phenomenal discussion.

3. Are long videos threatened?

The Spring Festival period has always been a popular spot in the film and television industry because of its long holiday and family-friendly features.

Traditional TV series such as movies and TV series often start to promote one or two months in advance, whether it is laying out promotional space inside and outside the website, or cooperating with celebrities to visit buildings and roadshows, or shooting theme videos with Internet celebrities. In contrast, it is difficult for short dramas to achieve such a large scale of publicity, and the popularity of the actors in short dramas is not on the same level as that of celebrity actors. Many factors have led to the fact that short dramas are in a weak position in the early stage.

In addition, the awareness of protecting the originality of short dramas needs to be improved. After the popularity of "I Was a Stepmother in the 1980s", a total of 82 episodes of the series were moved to multiple websites such as Bilibili and Baidu Cloud, which means that viewers can watch the entire series for free or for a fee without having to jump to the mini program. In one of the videos moved to Bilibili, the number of online viewers even exceeded 5,000.

Under such circumstances, short dramas can still replicate last year's "wealth-making wave" and "topic wave" in this year's Spring Festival. What is more worthy of Youku, iQiyi, Tencent Video and Mango TV's vigilance is that some users who are unwilling to pay for long videos easily open their wallets for short dramas.

The length of a single episode is 1-2 minutes, the total number of episodes exceeds 50, and the first 10 episodes are free. These are the typical characteristics of mini-program short dramas, and paid viewing is their main source of income. According to Enlightenment's report data, among the users of micro-short dramas, low- and middle-income people account for more than 70%, and among the paying users of mini-program dramas, about 90% are between 30 and 40 years old, and 70% are men.

On multiple social media platforms, children lamented their parents’ loyalty in paying for short dramas. “Usually, they are reluctant to buy memberships for any video website, but during the Chinese New Year, they asked me how to pay to watch dramas,” “When I went home for the Spring Festival, my mom watched romantic short dramas every day, and my dad watched family ethics dramas and occasionally cool dramas with golden fingers,” “In just one meal, my father recharged 200 yuan for a long-lost micro-short drama”... Parents who used to sneer at memberships of video websites did not expect to become addicted to watching dramas on mini-programs.

The paying ability of this group of users, as well as the opening of short video channels and social channels, have made the market affirm the future of short dramas. According to iMedia Consulting's forecast, the market size of short dramas is expected to reach 100 billion yuan in 2027.

At a time when short dramas are constantly creating the concept of schedules, and when the genre elements of short dramas are gradually approaching the topics of long dramas, and short dramas are combined with short video channels to open up more users' live broadcast vehicles, the threat of short dramas to traditional dramas, variety shows and other long content has been continuously highlighted during this Spring Festival period.

The "efficiency revolution" brought about by short dramas has forced long videos to defend themselves in order to seize users' time and brand favor. On the one hand, long video platforms have been actively planning for the short drama track for a long time, and even launching long and short drama content on the site at the same time. On the other hand, the refinement of long dramas has also begun to be written by going "short" and relying on the improvement of artistic quality to expand their unique value.

Regarding the future traffic game, which form can become the "number one" in entertainment content? The market cannot underestimate the potential of short dramas. After all, even Stephen Chow has chosen to get involved, and the market size of hundreds of billions is just around the corner. The response given by this Spring Festival period has once again given everyone confidence in the development of short dramas.

Author: Houma WeChat public account: Yiyu Observation