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Caught ourselves turning the phone sideways for a video today, then feeling weirdly let down when the picture went wide. Vertical rewired us, and we are not asking for a refund.
Korea's biggest film studio just went vertical
Here is a name that does not usually share a sentence with "90-second episode." Showbox, the Korean studio behind theatrical monsters like The King's Warden, which grossed north of $100M to become the biggest Korean film of all time, has signed a co-production deal with ReelShort to make original short-form dramas for a global audience.
The shape of it: Showbox first co-produces microdramas built on ReelShort's existing intellectual property (IP), then the partnership widens into original short-form titles developed by Showbox itself. Everything lands exclusively on ReelShort, which reaches more than 70 million monthly active users (MAU) across 100-plus countries. The opening Korean slate is Tell Me Not To Love You, My Secret Lover Is His Brother and Queen Never Cry. Showbox only stepped into vertical in December, with two pilots. Six months later it is plugged into the biggest pipe in the format.
Why this matters for you: If you write, direct, or crew in K-content, a prestige theatrical studio just opened a vertical lane that pays and distributes worldwide. The craft bar that built Korea's box office is walking into 9:16, and it will need scripts, sets, and people who already know how to land a hook.
🇺🇸 United States
1. A soap institution just ordered a vertical Season 2 before Season 1 even airs. The Bold and the Beautiful head writer Bradley Bell is prepping a second season of his microseries Hollywood Starlet for aTwist, ahead of the freshman season's debut, working alongside his son Oliver Bell. When the man who runs daytime's longest-running engine room renews a vertical show sight unseen, that is a vote for the format's staying power. → Deadline
2. A Nasdaq game publisher is quietly building a US vertical hub. Snail Inc, the studio behind ARK: Survival, runs a stateside vertical division called Interactive Films, whose app SaltyTV has shipped 67 short dramas; its Red Talons took Best Fantasy at the 2025 Vertical Shorts Festival and Hollywood Heartthrob is up at the International Short Drama Awards. Gaming money chasing 9:16 means another buyer, and another set of credits, for US creators. → GlobeNewswire
3. Verticals now fill close to half a Los Angeles soundstage calendar. SirReel Studio Services chief Wes Bailey told The Hollywood Reporter that vertical work went from "something that never happened" to roughly 40% of the shoots on his stages. In a town where features and episodic have gone quiet, that is a lot of call sheets the format is keeping alive.→ The Hollywood Reporter
Here's what else is new:
The real microdrama budget is the ad budget. As much as 90% of a vertical series' spend goes to marketing and user acquisition, so a roughly $200K shoot can ride a roughly $2M promotional push, the math creators rarely see. → Real Reel
The hook is doing the heavy lifting. A breakdown of how microdramas capture and keep viewers traces the money back to the craft of the open, the cliffhanger, and the first few seconds, the things a writer actually controls. → Digital Content Next
🌐 Worldwide
1. A Hollywood-backed platform is co-producing five Spanish-language verticals. Bill Block's GammaTime and Latin American (LATAM) studio Idilio are co-producing five original Spanish-language vertical series for global distribution, spanning romance, telenovela, and crime thriller. Five greenlights in one deal is five more rooms for Spanish-language writers and crews to walk into. → Deadline
2. A national broadcaster declared its own "year of microdramas." Singapore's Mediacorp, which reaches 96% of the country's adults weekly, is rolling out a slate of vertical titles across its social and owned platforms, framing short-form scripted as a way to reach a regional and global audience fast. When a legacy broadcaster commissions vertical at scale, it is buying scripts, not just dabbling. → Variety
3. China's overseas microdrama revenue nearly tripled, and the data is the story. Overseas micro-drama revenue hit about $1.5B in the first eight months of 2025, up 195% year over year, with roughly 90% of the world's top 20 apps by revenue backed by Chinese companies. Those apps run on a constant hunger for episodes, much of it now produced far outside China, which is to say, possibly near you. → Yicai Global
Here's what else is new:
Mediawan is eyeing a kids vertical push. The French group's Kids & Family arm is exploring Asia partnerships and a microdrama play, scouting the territory at the Taiwan Creative Content Festival. → AOL
Ampere maps who is actually watching. Ampere Analysis' survey of 100,000 consumers found 18-to-34s are 21% more likely than average to have watched a micro-drama in the past month, with YouTube the top destination at 44% and TikTok close behind at 38%. → World Screen
Today's Pick
A casting director who works in vertical breaks down what actually lands on camera in a mobile-first format, why authenticity and emotional clarity beat polish, and how casting differs from traditional screen work. → Listen on Apple Podcasts
The studio that made Korea's biggest film of all time just decided a 90-second script was worth its name. So is the one you are writing.
Until tomorrow. Stay Vertical.
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