Meet DramaBox, the app that’s trying to win the micro drama race by expanding beyond werewolves and billionaire romance

Micro dramas, the soapy Asian import, have won millions of paying viewers in the US with exaggerated romances, often involving badly behaving billionaires.

One of the leading players, DramaBox, knows that werewolves and love stories — including “Summer Honeymoon with My Secret Billionaire” and “Dean: My Mafia Protector” — will only take it so far.

Richard Zhou, DramaBox’s head of global content, said the app is looking to diversify into new storytelling styles and genres. It’s aiming to make series for families and is testing dramas in the choose-your-own-adventure style. It also plans to experiment with animated shows for kids.

Hollywood’s fascination with micro dramas has grown along with the popularity of apps like DramaBox and ReelShort.

In an interview with Business Insider, DramaBox executives laid out their goals for the US market and how they plan to stay ahead of the proliferating number of competitors.

“Our ambition is to become the most popular micro drama platform for American users and our partners in the industry,” Zhou said.

DramaBox and ReelShort lead the pack in short drama apps, which present dramas in roughly 90-second vertical episodes meant for mobile viewing.

DramaBox, part of Singapore-based StoryMatrix, earns money through pay-per-view, subscriptions (at $20 a week), and ads. It’s also developing a new revenue stream in product placement and plans to open a New York office.

Sensor Tower estimates that DramaBox generated $450 million in global in-app revenue as of March, just behind ReelShort’s $490 million. DramaBox executives take issue with those rankings, saying their own numbers are higher, without sharing specifics. The company said it’s profitable.

While Zhou said ReelShort produces more content, he added that DramaBox would “soon catch up.”

One way DramaBox hopes to amp up production and diversify its offering is by co-developing with Hollywood. It’s making some headway. It landed a spot this year in the Disney Accelerator, a program whose membership has included voice cloning startup ElevenLabs and Epic Games.

DramaBox execs recently met with prominent creator Dhar Mann, who described its scale in a LinkedIn post as “unbelievable.” DramaBox demurred on specifics but said it’s open to collaborating with creators. ReelShort is also exploring working with social-media influencers.

“They’re very savvy in terms of understanding the social media trends,” Zhou said of creators, translating for the company’s CEO, RQ Chen. “Also, we believe they can bring in new genres and new talents.”

Can micro dramas help Hollywood?

Hollywood has struggled to recover from the 2022 market correction and the 2023 twin labor strikes. Many in Gen Z would rather watch YouTube creators than traditional TV. And hundreds more layoffs loom now that the Paramount Skydance deal is closed.

Could micro dramas help boost the industry?

Micro dramas are cheap to make, costing about $100,000 to $300,000 for a full-length movie. This is a fraction of the cost of traditional Hollywood shows, whose per-episode costs can easily run into the millions. Hollywood and social media platforms are trying to figure out how to capitalize on the craze.

It’s not yet clear how these dramas could fit into the traditional film and TV system, which emphasizes high production values and guild-protected talent.

DramaBox, for its part, doesn’t see itself replacing Hollywood but reinvigorating it — particularly because the format is geared toward mobile viewing.

“We want to empower more Hollywood filmmakers from traditional media to participate in this new format and build the visual storytelling language in this new format as well,” said Shicong Zhu, DramaBox’s Los Angeles-based head of studio, translating for Chen.

“We truly believe that the two forms of entertainment will coexist in the future under different user scenarios and situations,” Zhou said, translating for Chen. “There will also be living room, TV, entertainment, but there’ll also be shorter form formats for viewing on mobile.”

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