{"id":3561,"date":"2026-06-16T04:40:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T04:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/2026\/06\/16\/apos-korean-studio-showbox-signs-microdrama-co-production-deal-with-reelshort\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T04:40:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T04:40:00","slug":"apos-korean-studio-showbox-signs-microdrama-co-production-deal-with-reelshort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/2026\/06\/16\/apos-korean-studio-showbox-signs-microdrama-co-production-deal-with-reelshort\/","title":{"rendered":"APOS: Korean Studio Showbox Signs Microdrama Co-Production Deal With ReelShort"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Microdramas<\/span> \t\t\t<\/p>\n

The deal makes the studio behind ‘Exhuma,’ ‘A Taxi Driver’ and ‘Itaewon Class’ the latest major player in Korea’s film industry to chase the booming \u2014 and crowded \u2014 vertical drama market.<\/p>\n<\/header>\n

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\"ReelShort-Showbox \t\t\t \t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>

\t \t\t\t\t\tExamples of the upcoming ReelShort-Showbox microdrama titles. <\/span> \t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tReelShort<\/cite> \t\t\t\t\t \t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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\tShowbox, the South Korean studio behind the 2024 box office juggernaut Exhuma<\/em>, has signed a co-production deal with the microdrama app ReelShort \u2014 the latest sign that Korea\u2019s film establishment is treating vertical drama as a serious business category rather than a passing fad.<\/p>\n

\tUnder the agreement \u2014 announced on the eve of APOS<\/a>, the Asia<\/a>-Pacific media industry conference in Bali \u2014 Showbox will co-produce short-form series based on ReelShort\u2019s existing properties, with original Showbox-developed titles to follow. The content will stream exclusively on ReelShort. The first Korean-made batch \u2014 mostly romance fare, with titles like Tell Me Not to Love You<\/em>, My Secret Lover Is His Brother<\/em> and Queen Never Cry<\/em> \u2014 suggests that, for now, Showbox is working within microdramas<\/a>\u2018 usual pulpy genre conventions. \t<\/p>\n

\tThat a studio of Showbox\u2019s pedigree is making one-to-two-minute melodramas is a notable milestone for the form. One of Korea\u2019s major theatrical distributors, the company is behind some of the country\u2019s biggest films \u2014 such as Exhuma<\/em>, which earned $93 million at the global box office in 2024 \u2014 and also produces premium K-drama series, including the Netflix hit A Killer Paradox<\/em>. Showbox\u2019s involvement holds out the promise of higher-quality K-drama production values for a format widely dismissed as cheaply made and disposable.<\/p>\n

\tAnd Showbox is not alone \u2014 much of Korea\u2019s entertainment establishment has begun exploring the microdrama format over the past year. CJ ENM\u2019s streamer Tving launched a vertical short-form section in 2024, telecom KT\u2019s Studio Genie, previously the conglomerate\u2019s general drama-and-film production arm, refocused on short-form series, and several top-grossing filmmakers \u2014 among them Lee Byeong-heon, director of the all-time Korean box office champ Extreme Job<\/em> \u2014 have dabbled in the genre. The number of Korean short-form platforms swelled from around 20 in 2023 to nearly 90 by early 2025, as the industry wagered that Korea could command the higher-quality end of a market so far built on sheer speed and volume. \t<\/p>\n

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\tFor Showbox, the move also reflects an attempt at diversification. After Exhuma<\/em> powered the company to record earnings in 2024, its 2025 film slate misfired, with a string of theatrical flops, while the wider Korean box office has struggled to climb out of its post-pandemic slump. Microdramas \u2014 fast and cheap to produce \u2014 could offer an appealingly low-cost hedge. Showbox said it would use the ReelShort deal as \u201ca foundation to expand into a wider range of genres and formats.\u201d It made its first move into the format last December, producing two microdramas of its own \u2014 among them Bridal Shower: The Missing Bride<\/em> \u2014 and signing distribution deals with the platforms DramaBox and Vigloo. But the ReelShort co-production pact goes a step further, signaling the studio is spreading its bets rather than backing a single platform.<\/p>\n

ReelShort \u2014 founded in 2022, with a claimed 70 million-plus monthly active users \u2014 is widely credited with breaking microdramas into the U.S. market, though it is itself Chinese-backed. Beijing-based COL Group owns 49 percent of ReeShort\u2019s California-based parent company, Crazy Maple Studio.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

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\t<\/main> \t\t \t\t \t\t \t \t \t \t\t <\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Skip to main content Microdramas The deal makes the studio behind ‘Exhuma,’ ‘A Taxi Driver’ and ‘Itaewon Class’ the latest major player in Korea’s film industry to chase the booming \u2014 and crowded \u2014 vertical drama market. Examples of the upcoming ReelShort-Showbox microdrama titles. ReelShort Showbox, the South Korean studio behind the 2024 box office juggernaut Exhuma, has signed a co-production deal with the microdrama app ReelShort \u2014 the latest sign that Korea\u2019s film establishment is treating vertical drama as a serious business category rather than a passing fad. Under the agreement \u2014 announced on the eve of APOS, the Asia-Pacific media industry conference in Bali \u2014 Showbox will co-produce […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2025,115,94,95,2,116,2026],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apos","category-asia","category-business","category-business-news","category-hollywood","category-international","category-microdramas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}