3.5 million views in 2 days, the 'old IP' + 'new comedy' of 'A Chinese Odyssey' drives short drama brands to break through the circle.
As of 22:00 on November 9, Stephen Chow's short drama theater "9527" latest masterpiece "A Chinese Odyssey Reimagined" on Douyin platformhas reached 35 million views within just two days of release.
Compared to the brand's previous work "Golden Pig Jade Leaf", which as Stephen Chow's first short drama achieved a total of 450 million views across two seasons, "A Chinese Odyssey Reimagined" is showing equally impressive momentum.
The "9527" theater is a premium micro-drama project exclusively launched by Douyin in collaboration with Stephen Chow on January 29 this year.Against the backdrop of the growing short drama market, theaterization has become a common model for video platforms to promote short drama development.
In its theaterized layout for premium short dramas, Douyin has successively launched three major IP brands this year: "9527", "Rose Story" and "Polar Night", aiming to build a short drama matrix with greater brand influence and content appeal.
Currently, major video platforms have launched their own short drama brands, such as Tencent Video's "Ten Minute Theater", Youku's "Youku Mini Theater" and Bilibili's "Bilibili Mini Theater". However, in the fierce market competition, the "9527" theater stands out and frequently trends on social media. Besides Stephen Chow's immense appeal, its innovative approaches in theater operation are worth exploring.
The Strong Conceptual Approach of Premium Short Dramas
"A Chinese Odyssey Reimagined", as the second masterpiece of the "9527 Theater" short drama brand co-created by Douyin and Stephen Chow, is jointly produced and starred by Jiang Long and Zhang Tian'ai.
As a derivative short drama of Stephen Chow's classic movie "A Chinese Odyssey", it cleverly adopts the film's worldview, telling a new storyline set 500 years after "Journey to the West", where the male lead "Jade Emperor" and female lead "Moonlight" are derived from classic characters in the movie.
Observations show that the "9527 Theater"places particular emphasis on constructing and disseminating strong concepts in short drama content planning. Taking "A Chinese Odyssey Reimagined" as an example, its two core concepts stand out:
First, as a derivative work of Stephen Chow's most classic IP "A Chinese Odyssey", it successfully attracts attention from many fans of the original. With Stephen Chow's personal involvement, the new drama not only continues the classic elements of the original but also innovates in storytelling.
The drama cleverly incorporates clips from the film version of "A Chinese Odyssey", such as the distant shot of the departing monk trio and the close-up of Jiang Long playing "Jade Emperor", not only evoking nostalgia but also deepening audience recognition and anticipation for the short drama version.
Second, the drama gathers 33 renowned comedy actors including Fu Hang, Liu Yang, Zhan Xin, Jiang Shimeng, Liu Siwei and Song Muzi, forming a powerful "comedy all-star" lineup.
Before its release, the posters featuring these 33 comedy actors and the audition short video of popular comedian Fu Hang successfully generated widespread social attention. Related hashtags like #ComedyStarsRemakeAChineseOdyssey and #TooManyComedyStarsInAChineseOdysseyReimagined each exceeded 1.5 million in daily popularity before release, demonstrating strong market appeal.
Particularly, the short video of popular actor Fu Hang from "The King of Comedy Monologue Season" released by the official short drama account sparked discussions under the Douyin hashtag #FuHangs800FakeMovesForStephenChowAudition, peaking at nearly 30 million simultaneous viewers.
Notably, this strong conceptual approach was also successfully applied in the "9527 Theater"'s first work "Golden Pig Jade Leaf".
As Stephen Chow's first short drama, "Golden Pig Jade Leaf" took"authentic Stephen Chow-style short drama" as its core concept, paying homage to his classic works through elements like the opening scene's cleaver design matching "From Beijing with Love" and "Kung Fu" references in chat logs, successfully creating unique brand style and market differentiation. Statistics show over 100 tributes to Stephen Chow's works were identified in Season 1 of "Golden Pig Jade Leaf".
From "Golden Pig Jade Leaf" to "A Chinese Odyssey Reimagined", the "9527 Theater"has stood out in the competitive short drama market through strong conceptual strategies brought by top creators or classic IPs, creating unique brand identity and market influence. This strategy has been successfully replicated by Douyin in other theater brands, becoming an important means to promote short drama market development.
Brand as Vertical Category
Besides successfully incubating the "9527" theater this year, Douyin has also created two other IP brands "Rose Story" and "Polar Night", forming a diversified short drama content ecosystem.
These three brands each focus on different content areas: "9527 Theater" continues to deepen in comedy, led by Stephen Chow's appeal; "Rose Story Theater" focuses on female emotional themes, precisely targeting female audiences; while "Polar Night Theater" carves a unique path specializing in suspense, filling a gap in the short drama market.
In "Rose Story Theater", Carman Lee's appearance in its first short drama "Afternoon Rose" created a similar buzz effect as Stephen Chow in "9527 Theater".
The drama not only sparked discussions with topics like "Little Dragon Girl" returning to modern drama after a decade, but also touched many viewers by deeply exploring modern intimate relationships and female self-growth. Meanwhile, social hotspots addressed like full-time mothers returning to work and middle-class impoverishment resonated widely. Currently, the drama has surpassed 170 million views.
The "Polar Night Theater" announced in September collaborates with renowned Chinese mystery writer Zijin Chen to create a suspense short drama feast.
Its first work "Rising Sun", as a derivative micro-drama of the original novel "The Bad Kids", features Zijin Chen as chief screenwriter and producer, along with director Ma Xiaogang of high-rated web drama "The Lost Tomb" and web movie trilogy "The Guilty" and the original production team of "The Bad Kids". The drama will focus on adult Zhu Chaoyang's story, expected to release this year.
Currently, the short drama market shows a trend of native theater emergence, with audience viewing habits shifting from passive acceptance to active selection. However, many short drama theater accounts still lack vertical characteristics and generic content identifiers, making it difficult to form distinctive brand recognition.
Douyin adopts a premium short drama brand strategy, choosing independent construction of vertical categories. Through deep collaboration with top IPs, it creates vertical segmented theaters,deeply binding theater brands with vertical content in market cognition. Under this strategy, Douyin is accelerating vertical brand layout, committed to building a more diversified and professional short drama content ecosystem.
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