---
id: "lib-2026-11-02-the-arithmetic-of-short-drama-factories-under-ai"
type: "library"
title: "The arithmetic of short-drama factories under AI"
title_original: "郑州与横店之间：AI沉浮，短剧工厂的残酷算术"
lang: "ZH"
org: "嗅态 (on 36Kr)"
source_type: "Practitioner post"
date: "2026-11-02"
week: "2026-W45"
url: "https://nosov.ai/library/lib-2026-11-02-the-arithmetic-of-short-drama-factories-under-ai/"
original_url: "https://www.36kr.com/p/4052104112543620"
tier: "A"
tier_name: "Strong evidence"
tier_reason: "Shi Can's months-long field report for Xiutai (republished by 36Kr) follows named studios, crews and an actor in Zhengzhou, Hengdian and Guiyang, and backs their accounts with costs, compute bills and third-party data from QuestMobile, DataEye and Hengdian; a well-documented industry case, though company figures are self-reported."
summary_basis: "full-text"
original_minutes: "25"
tags: ["future of work", "business transformation", "ai video", "short drama", "labour"]
---

# The arithmetic of short-drama factories under AI

Original title: 郑州与横店之间：AI沉浮，短剧工厂的残酷算术

Tier A (Strong evidence): Shi Can's months-long field report for Xiutai (republished by 36Kr) follows named studios, crews and an actor in Zhengzhou, Hengdian and Guiyang, and backs their accounts with costs, compute bills and third-party data from QuestMobile, DataEye and Hengdian; a well-documented industry case, though company figures are self-reported.

Summary based on the full text.

## In short

A long 2 November 2026 feature from the WeChat account Xiutai (嗅态), republished by 36Kr. Live-action short dramas boomed on platform guarantees through 2025, then platforms cut guarantees and revenue shares between December 2025 and March 2026. Studios that had tested AI production moved most staff onto it; crews, sets and actors lost work. Money now flows to compute providers and paid distribution, and studios face a flood of content in which few titles break even.

## Key numbers

- about 90%: share of staff one Zhengzhou studio moved to AI production in April 2026; monthly output then rose to 5,000-8,000 minutes
- 20+ to about 10 a month: the same studio's live-action short-drama orders after platforms cut minimum guarantees
- about RMB 2 million: one studio's spend on AI video generation with Volcano Engine in four months, at about RMB 1 per second of 720p video
- 82.5%: year-on-year fall in vertical short-drama crews shooting in Hengdian in Q3 2026 (Yule Ziben Lun count)
- 200+ to about 30: staff at Deyu Film after four rounds of layoffs in 2026, from RMB 160 million revenue in 2025

## What it reports

- 2025 boom: lead actors earned RMB 50,000 a day; a 7-8 day shoot rose from RMB 200,000 to 1.2-1.5 million. Platforms released 200-500 dramas a month to find hits.
- Around 15 February 2026 the Hongguo platform's revenue share roughly halved: a drama with 50 million heat earned RMB 400,000-600,000 instead of 1-1.5 million. A holiday drama costing RMB 1.4 million ranked third nationally and did not recover its cost in the first month.
- Chengfeng Polang studio: first AI drama (December 2025) cost about RMB 50,000 in compute and lost money; the third took 20 days and returned 4x its cost. By April about 90% of staff were on AI production; monthly output reached 5,000-8,000 minutes from May to August.
- AI production line: five or six people per line, scripts broken into shots by AI and checked by a director, character and set assets kept in a shared Feishu table, video "card draws" checked clip by clip.
- A Zhengzhou film base moved a 20-30 person camera crew into AI testing and pulled them back: each generation took 5-10 minutes and a missed detail meant another wait. By September its AI team had been disbanded.
- A lighting chief who once led 12 people now usually leads 3, because that is all the budget covers.
- Compute: one studio spent nearly RMB 2 million on Volcano Engine in four months; rough work costs nearly RMB 200 a minute, high-quality work over RMB 1,000.
- DataEye: in H1 2026 Douyin added 221,900 AI and comic dramas; 2,886 (1.3%) passed the 50-million-play break-even line. 19 of Hongguo's top 30 AI dramas were IP adaptations.
- Platforms now price jobs off visible inputs: "compute RMB 30,000, labour RMB 30,000; can you do it for 55,000?"
- Hengdian: 4,016 short-drama crews in 2025; Q3 2026 crews down 82.5% year on year (peak week 106 last year vs 24). A consortium of Dongyang Shenkong Engine and Volcano Engine won a RMB 230 million contract for a Hengdian AI platform.
- An actor who earned RMB 1,500 a day in 2025 worked 5 days in March and April 2026, earned RMB 4,000 in his worst month and left Hengdian in September.

## How they got it

Field reporting since June 2026 in Zhengzhou, Hengdian and Guiyang: interviews with studio heads, a vice president, AI production staff, base staff, a lighting chief and an actor, plus visits to production floors. Market figures come from QuestMobile, DataEye, Hengdian reports, the Jiefang Daily and the China Netcasting Services Association.

## Limits

- Studio revenue, cost and output figures are self-reported by the companies.
- DataEye covers Douyin only; the two Hengdian crew counts use different methods, which the author notes.
- Platform behaviour is described from the producers' side; Hongguo and other platforms are not quoted.

## Why it matters for companies

The case shows the sequence that may repeat in other content and service industries: the buyer cuts prices first, suppliers then adopt AI to survive, and the buyer uses the now-visible compute and labour costs to cut prices again. Cheaper production also raised supply until distribution and story became the constraint, so the margin moved to platforms, compute vendors and IP owners. Anyone budgeting AI content should plan for paid distribution and rework costs, which vary widely with operator skill.

## Key passages in translation

> 算力3万元、人工3万元，合计6万元，平台会问5.5万元能不能接。

Compute RMB 30,000, labour RMB 30,000, total 60,000, and the platform asks whether you will take it for 55,000.

> 现场早就能拍两三集了，在电脑前生成一条画面要等5到10分钟，漏写一个眼神光就得重新等待。

On set we could have shot two or three episodes by now; at the computer one shot takes 5 to 10 minutes to generate, and if you forget to write in a catchlight you wait all over again.

> 技术降低了制作门槛，故事和选题的重要性反而更加突出。

Technology lowered the barrier to production, so story and topic choice matter even more.

Original: https://www.36kr.com/p/4052104112543620