When Hollywood struck last year, 23-year-old Autumn Noel was depressed and considering quitting the industry, when she got an offer to star in a drama reel short.
In the show “Fated to my Forbidden Alpha,” she played a young woman caught between two rival clans of werewolves vying for dominance, and while her character was mistreated, the pay was good and the story was exciting.
“It’s caused a bit of a stir,” she says, “like the werewolf thing and I think some people just like men snatching women.”
ReelShorts, which slices melodramatic, formulaic shows into one-minute episodes, is driving a trend of popular short-form drama apps. The number of such apps in the Apple and Google app stores has more than tripled to 66 in the past year, according to market research firm Appfigures, including ReelShorts, DramaBox and ShortMax. These apps drove $146 million in consumer spending worldwide in the first quarter, up from $2 million a year ago.
ReelShort took in $52 million of that, or 37%, with the United States being its largest market: the app accounted for 37% of short drama app downloads, according to Appfigures. (Revenue figures are before app store fees.)
ReelShort was developed by California’s Crazy Maple Studio, which is backed by Beijing-based digital publisher COL Group. It aims to bring China’s popular short drama format to the U.S., with stories based on internet literature, including werewolves, vampires and billionaire husbands. At some point, viewers are shown ads or have to pay to watch the next episode. Crazy Maple founder Joey Jia said viewers typically pay $5 to $10 a week. ReelShort says the app has about 50 million downloads and 2 million daily active users.
One of ReelShort’s popular new shows is “Breaking the Ice.”
The long-term future of short-form dramas is unclear
Short-form dramas are still a small part of a streaming-video world dominated by the likes of TikTok and Netflix. But Jia thinks the genre could be a $500 million business this year, with ReelShort accounting for 40% of that. ReelShort told The Wall Street Journal last year that it had made $22 million in profits since launching a year earlier. He sees vertical video one day rivaling the movie industry, as people spend more time on mobile devices and demand content tailored to them. That might not be so far-fetched: A Deloitte study found that Gen Z prefers social video over TV shows and movies, and short-form dramas have both.
There’s no guarantee that the buzz around short-form dramas will last, and that ReelShort will maintain its dominance: Earlier this year, it was in the top 10 free entertainment apps in Apple’s App Store, according to analytics firm Sensor Tower, but its ranking has slipped slightly since then.
To keep up the momentum, Reel Shorts is producing more shows and branching out into genres other than romance, such as young adult. It released 23 shows last year and plans to release 120 by the end of this year. Reel Shorts is also trying to appeal more to men, who currently make up 30 percent of its viewers.
ReelShort is also in negotiations with major Hollywood studios about licensing entertainment content, but ReelShort wants to adapt the studios’ programming for its platform, which has been a stumbling block.
Another area of growth ReelShort is looking at is tapping into creators, much like TikTok and other social platforms have done. ReelShort typically produces its own shows, but also invites influencers and other types of creators to create their own content and earn revenue based on their performance. ReelShort is offering $10 million in funding for creators to pitch their own shows, and it’s also looking to feature creators with large followings on its shows.
YouTuber star Aveler attends Reel Shorts Summer Soiree 2024 in Los Angeles on July 26. Tiffany Rose/Getty Images
ReelShort hopes these creators will help it expand beyond romance into formats like mystery, which didn’t work well with ReelShort’s existing story templates. The company said it has already partnered with creators such as Joan Coronel, a contestant on the Netflix dating show “Too Hot to Handle,” and YouTuber Abelar.
“People want more content,” Jia said, “and they want diversity in content. That’s what inspired us to seek out more creators to follow our content, as long as they can tell a complete, emotive story.”
ReelShorts is pitching to creators
ReelShorts markets itself as a way for creators to thrive without the constraints of the Hollywood establishment.
The company hosted a lavish party in Los Angeles in July that was attended by many of its creators. Most of ReelShorts’ productions are shot in Atlanta, New York and Los Angeles, and the company plans to open a new studio and office in September near Hollywood’s major studios.
Noah Marin, an advertising industry veteran who consults with advertisers on social strategies, said Reel Shorts’ approach to creators seems like a smart way to raise awareness for the app and produce potential breakout shows, which he compared to how TikTok has done to attract established creators on other platforms.
“The platform serves two purposes: they create content for the platform and they build awareness in other areas,” Marin said of Reel Shorts’ outreach to creators, “because creators in that environment are more likely to grow subscription revenue and we want to see what they do next.”
Reel Shorts lack the scale of the big social platforms or the polish of Hollywood, which could limit the types of creators it can appeal to. Its shows have provided work for up-and-coming talent like Noel, but some who have worked with the company have criticized its productions for lacking diversity and following a grueling schedule; frequent ad breaks are a common complaint from viewers.
But Jia said Reel Shorts isn’t intentionally trying to copy Hollywood. He said shows are heavily scrutinized for their ability to hold audience attention and are ruthlessly reworked if viewers drift away, something he knows traditional Hollywood creators wouldn’t tolerate. After trying three- and five-minute episodes, the company decided that one-minute clips were best for quickly drawing in viewers.
ReelShorts is often compared to Quibi, the infamous short-lived video app that shut down after just six months. Jia says he studied the app to find a better way. While Quibi produced shows featuring celebrities with episodes of 10 minutes or less, ReelShorts’ model relies on short, hyperbolic emotional moments.
“It’s just old content presented in a new way,” he said of Quibi, and of ReelShorts, “It’s a totally different pace than a sitcom. We want to give the audience instant gratification. We don’t need celebrities. We just need the right story.”
