The fast-growing “microseries” industry is raking in billions and being pitched as a salve to struggling Hollywood workers — with stories of actors making $40,000 a month filming these viral shows with 1-minute to 3-minute episodes that are wildly popular.
But top Hollywood agents who are navigating this “Wild West” tell Page Six Hollywood the truth is more complicated.
While many agents caution the industry is still growing, and could become more lucrative as established players get into the space, the constant refrain is that the money isn’t there yet for writers.
Multiple agents confirm the going rate for microseries writers is around $5,000 to 7,000 per script, well below industry norms. (Most micro scripts are written as 30 to 60 minutes in length, then are chopped into minute-long episodes.)
“We had a writer pass on a deal because she’s like, ‘I can make more money babysitting,’” one agent tells us.
Part of the reason for the low pay, besides the desire to make these as cheap as possible, is that most of these apps, including category leaders Crazy Maple Studios (ReelShort), Holywater (My Drama) and StoryMatrix (Dramabox), have in-house teams of writers that churn out scripts.
“I think they’re starting to have an openness, but they do everything in-house,” another agent tells us. “They have in-house writers who are salaried who they just pay to do this full time.”
The biggest microdrama hits have pulpy names like, “The Double Life of My Billionaire Husband,” “Break Me, Princess,” “Married the Mafioso I Saved” and “30 Days Till I Marry My Husband’s Nemesis.” Variety reports that the micro industry is headed towards $26 billion in annual revenues by 2030. Already a $7 billion market in China, the industry is projected to hit $10 billion outside the country next year alone.
Actors, meanwhile, can find it hard to transition their newfound micro fame into traditional Hollywood gigs. (One agent recalled to us that a prominent microseries actor came into the agency for a meeting and was quickly deemed “not leading man material.”)
At the same time, these up-and-comers who staked their early careers to this space are now facing threats of being replaced by AI.
But it’s not all doom and gloom.
Arise Artists Agency was started up by former A3 partner Brian Cho two years ago, and launched a New Media department led by Harriette Feliz. Feliz tells us she’s had clients who started in microseries go on to traditional roles, saying: “We look at it as an incubator for young up and coming talent who 10 years ago wouldn’t have opportunities to work on sets every month.”
Kasey Esser, one of the most prolific microseries actors who reportedly makes as much as $40,000 a month, this year launched “Love Under Fire,” an action romance that he wrote and produced — the first microseries made independently.
Established players are now pouring into the space. Miramax chief Bill Block launched Gamma Time, a microdrama app that Versant backed this month. Jeffery Katzenberg — who may have been ahead of his time with the ill-fated Quibi, ironically — is back in the space with his WndrCo investment in the Latin American platform Idilio. In May, Issa Rae debuted the 57-episode series, “Screen Time.” It’s backed by TikTok, which launched its own dedicated app for microdramas, PineDrama, and also just announced a microseries writing program with the Sundance Institute. Fox has invested in Holywater, which owns a trio of apps, including MyDrama.
But we hear that one of the most anticipated launches this summer is of a new company, aTwist, led by a trio of Hollywood power vets including ex-chairman of ABC Entertainment Lloyd Braun, former NBCUniversal TV and Streaming exec Susan Rovner and former Showtime president Jana Wanograde. Ahead of its launch at the end of this summer, the company already has a content deal with BET and a distribution deal with National CineMedia that will put them in movie theaters.
One agent hopes that the influx of more traditional Hollywood execs will lead to more traditional TV deals. “That will not happen until some of these newer Western platforms start to pop up,” said the insider.