AI slashing cost of microdrama production in China to $30 per minute

Staff producing microdramas using AI at Dazhi Film and Television in Zhengzhou, China

Microdramas are now being made in China for as little as US$30 per minute using AI tools that almost completely remove humans from the production process, according to a New York Times (NYT) report.

In an article titled AI Is Transforming China’s Entertainment Industry, Vivian Wang and Jiawei Wang detail how the tech is upending the booming microdrama business in the country, where the format first emerged.

The report details how microdrama directors have been laying off crew members as AI tools such as Seedance 2.0 make it possible to produce the shortform shows for US$30 a minute, with no cameras, crew or human performers necessary.

According the DataEye, a Chinese consulting firm, nearly 50,000 new AI-generated microdramas were uploaded to Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, in March.

It comes as China’s production companies benefit from generous subsidies from the Chinese government to create microdramas that are watched around the world.

Typified by one- to two-minute episodes and extreme storylines with heated emotional cliffhangers, microdramas have become a major talking point at industry events this year, with some welcoming the new format and others decrying the low quality of the content.

Human-made microdramas tend to have budgets of between US$150,000 and US$300,000, with productions often shot in eight to 10 days. AI-made microdramas cost a small fraction of that.

Xinhua News Agency, the official state news agency of the Chinese government, recently issued a press release detailing the cheapness and virality of AI-made microdramas.

According to the release, Yang Hanhan, an AI content creator from Wuhan, produced a historical short film about the ancient Chinese general Huo Qubing with a team of three. The project took 48 hours and cost about ¥3,000 (US$374) in computing resources, but attracted wide attention at home and abroad.

Earlier this year, Bogdan Nesvit, co-founder of Ukraine-based Holywater, in which Fox Entertainment invested last year, has said that use of AI in microdramas is set to surge in the coming years “because it’s faster, cheaper, and increasingly indistinguishable to the audience.”