New ventures into microdramas are one of the clearest signs yet that Hollywood is taking two-minute mobile dramas seriously.
“You see how people are watching their content, right? Everyone is on their phone,” said Rachel Douglas, a Range Media partner, whose company teamed up with Keanan Thompson for his microdrama pitch. “I was first surprised by how much talent wanted to play and make stuff. Before, they go through the traditional process and nothing gets made; they’re at the mercy of studios and notes and development. With this model, we’re like, ‘Yeah, you’re not going to make any money up front, but you can go make the thing that you’ve been really passionate about.’”
Movieguide® has been tracking this shift for months. Back in January, we reported on how verticals were reshaping Hollywood’s workforce, spotlighting former Showtime and ABC executive Jana Winograde as she pivoted into the format. Winograde now runs the microdrama studio aTwist alongside fellow veteran Susan Rovner, and both resurface in Variety’s new report.
We’ve also raised real content concerns along the way. Many short-drama apps lean on oversimplified plots of love, wealth and revenge that can shade into softcore territory, complete with gratuitous language and violence that has little to do with edifying storytelling. Hollywood’s entrance into the space promises more polish, at least on paper, but families should still know what their kids are scrolling through.
The comparison every studio executive wants to avoid is Quibi. Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman spent more than $1 billion chasing premium short-form video with A-list directors like Guillermo del Toro, only for Quibi to collapse within six months of its 2020 launch and sell its library to Roku for a mere $100 million, Variety reported.
This round looks different. Budgets now average roughly $250,000 per season rather than per minute, and consulting firm Owl & Co. projects microdrama revenue outside China will reach $4 billion this year, up 33% from $3 billion in 2025.
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“They’re soap operas for the ADHD generation, because you’re taking out all the filler,” said Winograde, likening the format to the genre Procter & Gamble helped popularize on daytime television decades ago.
That growth hasn’t been painless for the people making the shows. Vertical Romance producer Enzo Semmens said pay rates run a third to a quarter of a standard day rate, and Eris Talent Agency founder Tina Randolph Contogenis said AI-generated stars and scripts have already cooled the market for her live-action clients.
“The goal is to keep doing as many of these as possible to keep fighting for live action with real humans,” said actress Janine Czajka, who has appeared in more than 18 verticals over the past year.
Legacy names keep climbing aboard regardless. Fox holds an equity stake in the Ukrainian microdrama app Holywater, Bravo is producing unscripted verticals with its own stars and Lifetime released its first microdrama, TIDES OF TEMPTATION, from Taye Diggs’ Microhouse Films.
Sunset Studios has even built dedicated vertical sets, including a courtroom, a bar and a hospital, on its Las Palmas lot.
“We see this as a growth market, and we’re very happy with the response so far,” said Sunset Studios senior VP of sales Sean Griffin, though he stopped short of calling verticals a fix for Los Angeles’ production drought.
Whether microdramas can replace the jobs Hollywood has lost is still an open question. “I don’t think it replaces anything — it doesn’t replace what a Netflix show is,” said Rovner. “But I do think it’s going to get more people working and offer more opportunities.”
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