The three short dramas of "The Overbearing CEO Falls in Love with the Middle-aged Me" have been viewed nearly 600 million times. What is the secret code of the silver-haired sweet pet traffic behind them?
2024-08-09
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The heroine is 45 years old. She is slapped by her son and ex-mother-in-law at home, rejected when she goes out on a blind date, and even her son wants to marry her off at any time in exchange for a dowry of 88,000 yuan... Just when her life is in a mess, the heroine has a flash marriage with a wealthy chairman who pretends to be a taxi driver, and thus begins a "twilight love".
The fine lines at the corners of the eyes of the heroine and the bags under the eyes of the hero are equally prominent, but age is not a stumbling block in the pursuit of true love, nor is it an obstacle for the audience to follow the drama. Recently, this kind of short drama for middle-aged and elderly people, "The Boss Falls in Love with Me", has become popular, with a topic flow of over 400 million on the platform, and many netizens went to the comment area to watch and check in. On August 8, the reporter of Upstream News learned from industry insiders that although the silver-haired people with free time and money have retired, they also need emotional satisfaction and things to pass the time. This group of people belongs to the "high-quality group of short dramas" in the eyes of production companies, and the explosion of related short dramas can also bring some inspiration to long dramas.
Stills from the short play "Flash Marriage at 50". Video screenshot
Plot: Still the familiar domineering formula
Judging from the names of the short dramas currently being broadcast on various platforms, they are quite "middle school": "Flash Marriage at 50", "After Flash Marriage, the Overbearing President Spoils Me Crazy at 50", "Flash Marriage Mom"...
Unlike traditional domineering CEO dramas, the popular middle-aged and elderly version of "The Domineering CEO Falls in Love with Me" turns the mother-in-law role in traditional short dramas into the heroine. Most of them have had an unhappy marriage, their children are already adults, and they have the courage to find true love in their fifties. They are very similar to the "silly and sweet" heroines in melodramatic novels. Even when they become mothers-in-law, they are gentle and kind, bullied by others, and then "rescued" by the male protagonists who are also in their fifties or sixties.
From the plot point of view, take "Flash Marriage at 50" as an example, this is the middle-aged version of the domineering boss's sweet drama: in a blind date, the heroine Li Xiuqin met the chairman who pretended to be a taxi driver for a blind date but actually owned 5 listed companies, and then the two got married. After that, the kind-hearted heroine and the hero who solved problems for the heroine from time to time started a new life. The chairman of 5 superior companies is the same as the young domineering boss. His main job is to save the heroine instead of running his own company worth tens of billions.
The details of these plots are still the familiar "domineering formula", that is, the hero saves the beauty, but the scene has become a square. The heroine has fine lines at the corners of her eyes, and the "hero" is old.
Judging from the exposed clips, "Flash Marriage at 50" could be nicknamed "The Life of the Slapped Heroine" or "Getting a New Slap Anytime, Anywhere". The quarrel dialogues in the plot are: "This is where we dance social dance, why do you square dancers come here?" "Your wife is too overbearing, why don't you let us dance square dance here?" The female supporting role slaps the heroine, and the female supporting role's husband slaps the female supporting role again.
In this drama, the "evil stepmother" in the previous young version of the domineering boss drama has become an unsuccessful son, who wants to marry his mother to her male classmate with a gift of 88,000 yuan. In addition, there is a daughter-in-law who quarrels with her son all day and wants the heroine to move out, and a vicious ex-mother-in-law who slaps her at every turn. It is not an exaggeration to describe the life of the 45-year-old heroine Li Xiuqin as a mess.
Netizens' comments under related videos. Network map
Data: Topic traffic in the hundreds of millions
According to the DataEye Short Drama Hot List, "Flash Marriage at 50" was on the DataEye Short Drama Hot List TOP20 nine times in June. On the Douyin platform, the short drama has been played 89.99 million times, and related topics have been played 470 million times.
Another short play, "After a Flash Marriage, the 50-Year-Old Domineering President Spoiled Me Crazy", has a similar plot. The official plot description is: 45-year-old Li Shufang encountered a strange blind date, and met the domineering president Dai Hongtu who also experienced a strange blind date. The two hit it off and got married on the spot. After marriage, the domineering president has been hiding his identity and getting along with the heroine as a takeaway brother. The heroine experienced the oppression of her original family, and also faced the embarrassment of the rich wives in the elderly cheongsam team, as well as various problems, which were all resolved by the hero one by one. The two experienced a sweet sunset love, and lovers finally got married.
Currently on the platform, the topic "After a new flash marriage, the 50-year-old doting president dotes on me" has been played 58.62 million times.
It is foreseeable that such short dramas are still emerging. According to the personal homepage of Liu Meixi, the actor who plays Li Xiuqin, short dramas such as "Flash Marriage at 50" and "Flash Marriage at Forty" have been launched or completed.
From the plot point of view, "Five-year-old Married Overlord" is still about the president leaving the company alone and disguising himself as a driver to find love: Fifty-year-old Tan Bing is a single mother of a tailor shop, and is repeatedly harassed by her alcoholic and domestically violent ex-husband. At the suggestion of her daughter, she went to the park for a blind date and got married to Chen Yifeng, the president of Chen Group, who was disguised as a motorcycle driver. After marriage, the two gradually fell in love, and together they overcame the entanglement of her ex-husband Hu Qiang, revealing the truth about Tan Bing's daughter. Their love became stronger after going through the storm. According to official data from the short video platform, the drama has 33.8 million views and related topics have 41.58 million views.
Industry insiders: The silver-haired generation is the "high-quality group for short dramas"
Upstream News reporter noticed that the producer of "Flash Marriage at 50" is Zhengzhou Tianqiao E-commerce Co., Ltd., which was established in 2012 and is currently the leading enterprise in Henan Province's short drama industry. It currently produces about 40 short dramas per month, and the number of short dramas released to the market has exceeded 1,000. Upstream News reporter also contacted the company on the 8th, and the relevant staff said that due to the recent short drama shooting and other various matters, it is inconvenient to accept the interview.
According to data from QuestMobile (Beijing Guishi Information Technology Co., Ltd.), a domestic mobile big data company, in March 2024, the number of senior citizens aged 50 and above in my country reached 325.85 million, with a penetration rate of 26.5%. The senior citizens spent 127.2 hours on the Internet, a year-on-year increase of 5.2%, and are still in a stage of sustained growth. Watching short videos, short dramas and live broadcasts have become one of their entertainment methods.
Liang Lili, founder of the industry community "Short Drama Study Room" and visiting professor at Jinan University, told Upstream News that although the wealthy and free seniors have retired, they still need emotional satisfaction and things to pass the time. They will not look for pirated products, but will only click to pay. They are considered "high-quality short drama people" by production companies.
Videos related to "Flash Marriage at 50" have been played 470 million times on short video platforms.
As for the popularity of "Flash Marriage at Fifty", Liang Lili believes that even in the current short dramas with middle-aged men and women as the protagonists, the main description points are centered around family and children. "Flash Marriage at Fifty" mainly revolves around family matters and incorporates middle-aged and elderly elements (blind dates among middle-aged and elderly people, square dancing, relationships between children, etc.) to enhance the audience's sense of involvement.
"'Flash Marriage at 50' combines the popular gameplay of current short dramas. The male version uses dual identities to increase the sense of excitement, and the female version always uses the heroine's compromise and sacrifice for the family to create emotional tension." Liang Lili believes that this can also bring some inspiration to long dramas, such as focusing on middle-aged and elderly people, making them the protagonists, and paying more attention to their emotions, life problems, and some pain points such as children's education and elderly care.
Upstream News reporters noticed that there are many short dramas like "Flash Marriage for 50 Years" recently. What is the prospect of such short dramas about elderly bosses? Liang Lili believes: "There is still a great demand from users that needs to be met, but more content creators with the perspective of middle-aged and elderly people are needed to tap into their real emotional points and pleasure points. This requires continuous exploration. In addition, short dramas about middle-aged and elderly people can also create more employment opportunities and performance stages for middle-aged and elderly actors, which is also a very meaningful thing."
Some netizens are worried that some vulgar and overly emotional content in such short dramas will affect middle-aged and elderly people. Liang Lili introduced that the average monthly filing number in the second half of 2023 exceeded 300, but the approval rate was less than 20%. After the new regulations on short drama filing were introduced in June this year, the review mechanism of each platform will be stricter.
Upstream News reporters noticed that Douyin, Kuaishou and other platforms have recently removed a number of illegal short dramas that deliberately arranged "mother-in-law and daughter-in-law battles" to exaggerate extreme emotions. Many industry insiders said that after the supervision is strengthened, the short drama industry will move towards standardization and high-quality production, which will be more conducive to a healthy development path in the long run.
Upstream News reporter Tang Hao, Zou Yu, intern Wu Ruijie
