CCTV News: China-US economic and trade relations have always attracted attention. In recent years, short and concise short dramas with ups and downs of plot have developed into a new business format for online film and television, and short dramas "going overseas" have also become a new trend in my country's cultural industry. Data shows that the United States has become the most important overseas market for Chinese short dramas.

In a studio in Hengdian Film and Television City, Zhejiang Province, a costume vertical screen short drama is being filmed in full swing. The person in charge revealed that short dramas with Chinese style themes are currently very popular in the overseas market, and will be launched into the North American market as soon as the filming and production are completed.

In a short drama company in Qiantang District, Hangzhou City, more than 100 kilometers away from Hengdian, a multinational script reading meeting is underway.

He Zexi, the person in charge, told reporters that they launched overseas applications a year ago and constantly provided short drama content to overseas audiences. As of now, the number of daily active users of their overseas platforms in the United States has reached 1 million, and the payment revenue of some short dramas in the United States has exceeded 10 million US dollars.

The reporter learned that short dramas going to overseas are generally divided into translated dramas and local self-made dramas. The number of episodes is usually between 60 and 100 episodes, each episode is about 1 to 2 minutes. The audience spends about more than ten to twenty dollars to twenty dollars to watch a short drama in full.

Now, the short drama platform, participated by the company's head, can be launched at the highest speed of self-made dramas for four movies per week. In 2023, the number of downloads once ranked first in the US app store entertainment category.

Hollywood cast and crew members join and short dramas are filmed and produced overseas

We just saw that many short drama companies have now achieved filming and production overseas and put them on the market. In the United States, the largest overseas market for Chinese short dramas, more and more local cast and crew members are participating in such an industry.

In this studio in Los Angeles, USA, a vertical screen short drama is being filmed. The reporter found that most of the directors, actors and staff at the filming scene were Americans.

The film and television studio where Yang Bohan is located has been established for only more than a year and has undertaken the shooting of many vertical screen short dramas. They usually recruit film crews directly from the United States, striving to be closer to the needs of American audiences in terms of script creation, performance and visual presentation.

Industry insiders revealed that in the United States, vertical screen short dramas can currently produce 100 per month, and the shooting cost of one is between 100,000 and 200,000 US dollars. It only takes about 6 weeks from shooting and production to broadcasting on the platform, which is in sharp contrast to Hollywood's traditional large-scale production, high-cost and long-term models. In Los Angeles, USA alone, short dramas provide at least 20% of jobs for the film and television industry.

Data shows that from August 2022 to June 2024, there were more than 100 Chinese short drama apps in the overseas application market, with a cumulative download volume of 148 million times and in-app purchase revenue of US$252 million, or approximately RMB 1.834 billion. Industry insiders said that at present, overseas shortages are in short supply. With the addition of local screenwriters who understand the rhythm of short dramas and the psychology and preferences of foreign audiences, and the wide application of big data promotion methods suitable for Internet communication, the overseas short drama market will further grow.

Short dramas are expected to open up new space for Sino-US cultural industry cooperation

The lively shooting scenes reflect the vitality of Sino-US cultural industry cooperation. With the continuous innovation of cooperation models, short drama cooperation is expected to open up new space for Sino-US cultural industry cooperation.

At present, short dramas "going to the sea" mainly include Chinese translated dramas and self-made original dramas. The translated drama is a translation of Chinese short dramas that have been verified in China into foreign languages ​​and invested in overseas markets; the original drama is a short drama filmed overseas based on original scripts, local production teams, and local actors.

In addition, technological empowerment has further reduced the production cost of short dramas. The application of AI technology is becoming more and more common, especially in translation, dubbing and localization, which has improved the efficiency and quality of content production, making Chinese short dramas "going overseas" more competitive. According to the "China Micro-Short Drama Industry Development White Paper (2024)", micro-Short Drama has shown huge growth potential in the overseas market, and the future market size is expected to reach US$36 billion, of which the download volume and application revenue of the US market occupies the first place in the overseas market.