When ReelShort topped the U.S. Google Play Entertainment App Free Chart for 38 consecutive days, and when the view count of Billionaire Husband's Double Life surpassed that of Squid Game, the explosive growth of Chinese domineering CEO short dramas overseas coincided with Hollywood's structural decline. This cross-ocean entertainment collision has made "Can Chinese short dramas save Hollywood?" a hot topic in the global film and television industry.
Hollywood's Dual Dilemmas
Once accounting for 90% of the global film market share, Hollywood is now trapped in multiple crises. Its global box office share has dropped by 16 percentage points in a decade, falling to 69.5% in 2024. For the first time ever, no European or American live-action films made it to Japan's top 10 box office rankings. A lack of creativity is the core crux—over-reliance on sequels of major IPs and content stuck in the dilemma of "political correctness" have gradually made audiences lose interest.
The predicament at the industrial level is equally severe. High-cost productions and cumbersome filming permit procedures have forced Hollywood to relocate much of its production overseas, with Vancouver and London becoming new filming hubs. The utilization rate of Los Angeles studios has plummeted from 90% to 63%. The 2023 actors' strike halted productions for half a year, and the 2025 tariff policies have further exacerbated financial pressures. Streaming service subscribers are dissatisfied with high costs, making the industry's recovery prospects increasingly bleak.
Chinese Short Dramas' Overseas Breakthrough
Chinese domineering CEO short dramas have broken into the overseas market with an entirely opposite approach. In Q1 2025, global in-app purchase revenue from short drama apps approached $2.3 billion, with the U.S. market contributing nearly half. Chinese companies such as China Online and Dianzhong Technology occupy 40 of the top 50 overseas short drama platforms, capturing 68.75% of the total revenue.
The secret to their success lies in accurately meeting overseas audiences' needs: a model of low cost (an average of $200,000 per drama), fast pace (5-30 minutes per episode), and strong conflicts (themes like domineering CEOs, revenge, and sweet romance), which perfectly fits fragmented entertainment scenarios. From ReelShort's self-produced high-quality content to DramaBox's success with 90% translated dramas, and ShortMax's "online novels + local adaptation" strategy, Chinese enterprises have explored diverse overseas expansion paths. AI technology has further enabled the mass production of multilingual scripts, significantly boosting production capacity.
Opportunities and Limitations in the Collision
Hollywood has keenly sensed this trend. Disney has entered into an IP adaptation partnership with DramaBox; 20th Century Fox Entertainment has invested in a Ukrainian short drama company; Miramax Films has launched a short drama platform; and even Kim Kardashian has joined the investment wave. Short dramas have not only provided higher daily-wage jobs for Los Angeles film and television workers but also prompted the actors' union to introduce specialized contracts—Hollywood is quietly transforming into "Vertical Hollywood."
However, the claim that short dramas can "save" Hollywood is still premature. While Chinese short dramas have filled a market gap, they face controversies over content homogeneity and some works relying on explicit gimmicks. Meanwhile, major Hollywood studios still approach short dramas with a long-content mindset, ignoring their core logic of "strong emotions and fast pace." As the failure of Quibi warned us years ago, simply splitting long-form content into shorter segments cannot replicate success.
Chinese domineering CEO short dramas cannot save Hollywood alone, but the industrial innovation they bring deserves deep consideration. Hollywood's technological accumulation and IP reserves, combined with the industrialized production and user insights of Chinese short dramas, may spawn a new entertainment ecosystem. This cross-cultural interaction is not about replacement but complementarity: short dramas fill fragmented consumption scenarios, while Hollywood maintains its position in high-end content.
In the future, the growth driver of the global entertainment industry will ultimately lie in balancing localized innovation and global collaboration. The overseas journey of Chinese short dramas is not so much about "saving" Hollywood as it is about providing a low-cost, highly flexible solution for the troubled Hollywood.
Would you like me to compile a key case list of Chinese short dramas' overseas expansion and Hollywood collaborations, clearly presenting the core models and outcomes of their interactions?
