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When Craig Williams opened his production facility in downtown Los Angeles two years ago, he thought he would rent out the converted furniture warehouse for the occasional music video to sustain his fledgling film business.<\/strong><\/p>\n Williams was blindsided by a phenomenon that quickly overtook \u200bhis production space: microdramas, vertically shot serials delivered in two-minute episodes, played on phones.<\/p>\n \u201cIt started getting booked \u2014 and continued to get booked \u2014 with microdramas,\u201d said Williams, 65, a former music producer for Death Row Records. \u201cAfter a year, I was booked all the time. I said, \u2018I\u2019ve got to build another one.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Williams now \u200coperates three production facilities, rebranded as Vertical World Studios, catering to the soapy, fast-paced world of vertical shorts. They\u2019re filled with standing sets \u2013 hospital room, police station, courtroom, nightclub \u2013 he bought at liquidation prices from major Hollywood studios like Sony Pictures and Paramount.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not a surprise. Hollywood is shrinking. Pending mergers threaten to further reduce production of films and shows. Actors fear AI extinction. Streaming companies are losing ground to YouTube.<\/p>\n Microdramas may be the only thing that\u2019s growing in Hollywood.<\/p>\n The format is expected to generate $1.5 billion in revenue in the U.S. this year and jump to nearly $2 billion next year, according to research firm Omdia. While traditional TV business in the U.S. is massive, at about $125 billion, it\u2019s projected to shrink by as much as $15 billion annually in the coming years because of continued cord-cutting, according to PriceWaterhouseCoopers.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also a sign of China\u2019s rising soft power. The format originated there, \u200band its rapid ascent has given Chinese-backed apps, such as ReelShort and GoodShort, a Hollywood foothold.<\/p>\n Vertical videos altogether, which includes TikTok, have surged, projected to reach $150 billion in global revenue this year, excluding China, researcher Owl & Co. said.<\/p>\n It\u2019s creating work for actors, writers, directors and craftspeople, and attracting investment from studios, media companies and technology platforms.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has \u200bcompletely changed my circumstances financially,\u201d said actor Robert Palmer Watkins who found regular work again after the production drought that followed the pandemic and the Hollywood strikes. \u201cI am so grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, there are some signs of life in old Hollywood. Spending on U.S. film productions rose \u20604% in the most recent quarter, thanks in part to tax incentives, according to research firm ProdPro. But globally it is still down.<\/p>\n \u2018DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Microdramas are succeeding because they apply a centuries-old formula \u2014 the cliffhanger \u2014 to the ubiquitous smart phone that Emarketer estimates accounts for 99 minutes of video viewing each day for the average American. Episodes range from 45 seconds to \u200btwo minutes long, leaving little time for lengthy plot set-ups.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re dropped right into the middle of the story, so it grabs your attention right away,\u201d said Lily Darragh Harty, director of production at Inkitt CandyJar, a platform for romance microdramas.<\/p>\n Some 66 million monthly active users watched microdramas last year in the U.S., more than double the 26 million in 2024, according to research firm \u200bOmdia. Women aged 25 to 55 make up the core user base.<\/p>\n The little-known studios behind the phenomenon are raking in dollars. CandyJar, a two year-old platform that releases a new romance about once a week, is on track to generate more than $100 million in annual sales. The company declined to disclose profit. According to its executives, each microdrama series typically spans 50 to 75 episodes, and takes about three months to produce at a cost of between $100,000 to $300,000. A typical half-hour sitcom costs between $2 million and $4 million per episode.<\/p>\n CandyJar\u2019s \u201cromance-forward\u201d platform attracts a 99.9% female audience, said Elana Zeltser, director of creative development for Inkitt CandyJar. Titles include \u201cThe Bad Boy Wants Me,\u201d \u201cMafia Temptation,\u201d and \u201cMy Sexy Devil,\u201d a melodramatic high school romance in which one-time enemies \u2014 a dance team captain and football quarterback \u2014 fall in love.<\/p>\n The themes are uncomplicated and the dramatic beats hit you over the \u200bhead. The term microdramas is apt: they\u2019re sitcoms and romcoms stripped down to the basics, a sketch of a show rather than a fully fledged drama.<\/p>\n Other platforms are more diverse. Males account for 30% of the users on My Drama, according to a new poll released by Owl & Co. and My Drama parent Holywater Tech. The biggest growth is among viewers ages 22-27, who are \u200battracted by a widening variety of microseries genres, including sci-fi\/fantasy and horror, Owl found.<\/p>\n Microdramas typically offer the first few episodes for free before charging through weekly subscriptions at around $8 to $20 to access each service.<\/p>\n Meagan Johnson, an influencer from Chicago, discovered microdramas on Facebook and now spends hours glued to them. She has spent as much as $200 a month.<\/p>\n \u201cI fell into the social-media advertising trap that vertical dramas rely \u200con to find new \u2060users,\u201d she said. \u201cThat just kind of catapulted me down the rabbit hole of watching them.\u201d<\/p>\n TikTok\u2019s broad reach has made it a haven for microdramas where viewers can discover new series without encountering the barrier of a paywall. Actress, writer and producer Issa Rae launched her first microdrama, the thriller \u201cScreen Time,\u201d on TikTok, where it attracted 500 million views in a month.<\/p>\n \u201cFor her, it\u2019s important to reach as large an audience as possible, so that she can see if this format is sticky \u2014 and she can get the direct audience feedback,\u201d said Dawn Yang, TikTok\u2019s global head of entertainment partnerships.<\/p>\n Maria Rua Aguete, head of media and entertainment at Omdia, said TikTok, Instagram Reels, Facebook and YouTube Shorts act as \u201cthe new trailers,\u201d driving users into apps.<\/p>\n ReelShort, one of the largest producers, recently saw its daily mobile viewing time jump 40% in the second quarter to about 38 minutes, more than mobile viewing for Netflix, Amazon Prime Video or Disney+, according to Omdia analysis of Sensor Tower data.<\/p>\n HOLLYWOOD IS PLAYING CATCH UP<\/strong><\/p>\n The major entertainment companies are incorporating vertical video in their streaming apps.<\/p>\n Comcast\u2019s NBCUniversal introduced verticals on its Peacock app in early 2025, and this summer launched \u200ba pair of unscripted microdramas, \u201cSalon Confessionals With Madison LeCroy,\u201d and \u201cCampus Confidential: Miami,\u201d that feature Bravo \u200bcharacters familiar to their audiences.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know that the audience likes consuming these \u2018must see\u2019 short \u2060form clips and vertical video, so it felt like the right environment to experiment,\u201d said Frances Berwick, chairman of Bravo and Peacock unscripted content.<\/p>\n Fox meanwhile, struck a deal with Holywater Tech, the Ukrainian company behind the My Drama video app, to produce more than 200 vertical video titles in exchange for an equity stake in the company. Veteran media executives have gotten into the act, including former Miramax CEO Bill Block, who launched a vertical drama app called GammaTime, and former ABC Entertainment Chairman Lloyd Braun, who is backing a studio and platform called aTwist.<\/p>\n ATwist co-founders Jana Winograde, the \u200bformer president of Showtime, and Susan Rovner, a veteran of NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Television, said they\u2019re using everything they learned about how to quickly hook a television audience. They plan to deliver 20 to 30 microseries, spanning various genres, including romance, thrillers and \u200bunscripted content, in the coming months.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not looking to \u2060win Emmys, we\u2019re looking to win the People\u2019s Choice Awards,\u201d said Rovner.<\/p>\n \u2018MAKE THIS CHARACTER SMILE\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n As the broader Hollywood community contends with the benefits and perils of AI, microdramas have embraced the technology.<\/p>\n To attract a male audience, CandyJar\u2019s sister platform Ironblood has started churning out action-focused microdramas made even more quickly and cheaply \u2014 using generative artificial intelligence. AI productions can be completed in three to four weeks for $60,000 or less.<\/p>\n Ironblood\u2019s AI shows are written by humans, and real-life actors are brought in to train generative AI to better portray human expressions. A human director uses prompts to direct the story.<\/p>\n \u201cI can make any change in two minutes,\u201d said Inkitt Ironblood producer and editor Elizabeth Knebel, who incorporates revisions requested by directors.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they want the character to smile, I can go into the prompt, say \u2018make this character smile,\u2019 \u2060and it\u2019s done immediately,\u201d \u200bshe said.<\/p>\n San Francisco-based Inkitt has about 135 employees and has hired 35 of them in recent weeks, said CEO Ali Albazaz. The company is adding one or two new video producers each week to ramp up productions \u200bfor what Albazaz sees as \u201cthe renaissance of Hollywood.\u201d<\/p>\n The new format has come with new rules and standards. SAG-AFTRA, the union that represents actors, stunt performers and others, created a new media contract that sets minimum pay rates, mandated rest periods and safety rules.<\/p>\n Not long ago, Hollywood hopefuls followed a well-worn path to discovery. A commercial gig followed by work as an extra, then getting an agent before booking that sitcom, and then, for the lucky few, a successful \u200bcareer. But that arc has changed, according to Hernan Lopez, the head of Owl, who was previously president and CEO of Fox International.<\/p>\n \u201cToday, you hear anecdotally of many people coming to L.A. and getting their first job through a vertical drama.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n