The waist drama is getting better and better, and the number of "3 billion +" broadcasts is getting less and less

June 25, 2023 | Total Issue 3277

The first half of 2023 is coming to an end, and the data of popular dramas on various platforms have also been released one by one. The film industry monograph counted the top 20 broadcasts of dramas in the first half of this year, and found that after the recovery of the industry, audience preferences and the creative trend of the drama market have shown different levels of changes.

"3 billion +" is absent

In the first half of 2023, the overall quality of mainland dramas has improved, especially the three high-scoring dramas "The Three-Body Problem", "Crazy" and "The Long Season", giving many fans the illusion that "good dramas are constantly on file". But from the perspective of the number of broadcasts, there are still only a few that can be called "explosive".

Yunhe data shows that after 10 billion "Crazy", the second place in total playback is Youku's solo Xian Xia drama "Long Moon Ember Ming", with 2.719 billion views.

Up to now, except for "Crazy", no drama has exceeded 3 billion views during the hit period this year. Previously, when analyzing the 5 billion club, the film industry monologue found that many dramas that exceeded 5 billion were viewed more than 3 billion during the hit period.

Of course, the limited number of broadcasts of some popular works is closely related to the short number of episodes. For example, iQiyi's summer hit drama "Canglan Tips" has a total of 36 episodes, and the number of views during the hit period is about 2.2 billion. Last year's hit episodes that exceeded 3 billion included "The World", "Qing Qing's Daily" and "Star Han Splendid, Moon Rising into the Sea", all of which have more than 40 episodes, of which "Star Han Splendid, Moon Rising and Rising Sea" is broadcast in upper and lower parts, with a total of 58 episodes.

In the first half of this year, there was no drama with more than 40 episodes, and it was indeed difficult to hit higher broadcasts in the short term. This is one of the reasons why the 2-3 billion playback range is almost blank.

Compared with last year, the number of dramas with a hit period of more than 1 billion in the first half of this year has increased significantly, with a total of nine dramas, most of which are broadcast on dual platforms. For example, iQiyi and Tencent Video jointly broadcast "Walking to the Wind" (1.679 billion) and "Yunxiangchuan" (1.162 billion), and iQiyi and Mango TV's "The Way Home" (1.291 billion).

For many non-head dramas, the number of views can be regarded as a "dark horse" if it can be among the 1 billion+. But in this year's 1 billion+ range, there are almost no small and broad cases, mostly works with a head volume, such as "Yunxiang Chuan" and "The Road of Life", and even the sci-fi big IP "Three-Body Problem" is also in the 10-1.5 billion camp.

"The Three-Body Problem" is a sci-fi group portrait, "The Legend of Yunxiang" is a group portrait of rivers and lakes from the perspective of Zhixia, and "The Road of Life" is a group portrait of young people growing up in northern Shaanxi. The common feature of these three dramas is that there are many characters and miscellaneous branches, but they do not advance the narrative in a strong plot and strong conflict, and the story temperament is relatively soft.

Under the impact of micro-short dramas, the audience's concentration time for watching dramas is getting shorter and shorter. Slow-hot dramas are not easy to retain audiences, which is why these three dramas are well completed, but the final broadcast volume has not reached a higher level.

Of course, this is also related to the fact that some platforms have adjusted the scheduling mode. For example, iQiyi used to broadcast on two lines, releasing free episodes every day; Many popular dramas this year have adopted a dual-window schedule, and only two episodes are released for free during the hit period. "Crazy" has no free period from start to finish.

A waist drama that can be hit

Another feature of the 1-2 billion playback segment is the vacancy of ancient puppet dramas. This is also related to the new sluggishness in this year's head ancient puppet drama. Since the official announcement of the withdrawal of "Ning'an Like a Dream" last month, the position of the ancient puppet at the head of the three major platforms has been vacant for a long time.

The end of the college entrance examination often means the beginning of the summer file war. Last year, the ancient occasions with a hit period of more than 1 billion in the first half of the year were "Acquaintance with Junchu" and "Menghualu", and the start of "Menghualu" in early June suddenly ignited the carnival of pure love in ancient costumes, and since then, "Star Han Splendid", "Canglan Tips" and "Agarwood Crumbs" have continued to be popular. But this year the pace has slowed down.

It was not until last week that the three major platforms finally announced that the summer ancient dolls and current dolls were new. On the evening of the 18th, "Changfeng Du" starring Bai Jingting and Song Yi was broadcast on iQiyi. "Can't Hide Secretly" and "Snow Eagle Lord" are also scheduled to be broadcast on Youku and Tencent Video in the next two days. If the quality is stable, the playback volume of these three films is also expected to move towards 1 billion+.

This year, many ancient puppet dramas that are not top have broadcast the effect of the previous head, such as "Starfall into Sugar" (853 million) starring Chen Xingxu and Li Randi, "Moon Song Xing" (901 million) starring Zhang Binbin and Xu Lu, and "Protecting the Heart" starring Hou Minghao and Zhou Ye (753 million, the series is not yet finished), all of which are at the same level as the broadcast volume of "And Try the World" and "Mirror Twin Cities" in the first half of last year.

Nowadays, ancient dolls no longer blindly roll production costs, use large IP, large traffic, but pay more attention to cost performance. Special effects and costumes can make fine designs that fit the characters; Emotional expression is in line with pop culture, focusing on creating a sense of fantasy and play. For example, "Starfall into Sugar" achieved the ultimate sense of joy in the early stage, and the jokes in life caused by the male and female protagonists due to personality friction are very dense, which is a successful and bold fresh attempt in similar dramas.

The quantity and quality of dark horse dramas is one of the signs of the recovery of the inspection industry.

Although cost reduction and efficiency increase make it difficult for many small-scale productions to land, from the perspective of broadcasts, the broadcast effect of this year's waist drama is going up. Last year's dark horse dramas had a variety of genres, including "portrait" criminal investigators such as "Crime Hunting Guide", and suspenseful youth such as "Twinkle and Twinkle Star" who used crossing to make a sense of fate. This year's waist works, which performed well, were a lot more "conservative" in terms of subject matter, mostly focusing on modern pure love.

For example, "When I Was a Boy", "I May Have Met a Savior" and "The Most Cannibalistic Fireworks", the Douban scores were 8.4, 8.0 and 7.6 respectively, which is regarded as the "bead" in the first half of this year. According to Yunhe data, the three dramas were played 150 million, 197 million and 279 million respectively during the hit period.

It is a pity that "When I Was a Boy", the whole drama outlines a vivid group portrait of the youth of the 90s in the form of an interlude, as if people are watching the mainland version of "Please answer 1988". But the final result of 150 million shows that pure nostalgic period dramas are no longer able to attract the attention of the audience, and for people with intermittent nostalgia, one period drama in the film list may be enough.

People who love to watch dramas are always keen to find more extreme conflicts and loves and hates in the play, but for life drama writers, how to balance the creative direction and the audience's increasingly tricky tastes will be a difficult must-answer question.

【Text/Kwai Chung】