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Vertical Micro Drama Weekly: long-form goes vertical, Korea locks a slate, Disney feeds the IP pipe

Week of Sept 14–21, 2025

Real Reel™

22 Sep 2025 — 3 min read

A long-form library title just became a 35-episode micro-drama

Romance streamer PASSIONFLIX and micro-drama platform Vigloo have re-cut The Secret Life of Amy Bensen, a 2022–2023 series based on Lisa Renee Jones’ books — into a 35-episode vertical run, now live on Vigloo and dubbed in eight languages. The move is notable not just as a one-off repackaging, but as a proof that finished, premium long-form can be structurally compressed for the micro-drama funnel without feeling “budget.” PASSIONFLIX frames it as reintroducing a fan favorite to new audiences, while Vigloo positions it as part of a broader US push.

For context on why this specific title matters: PASSIONFLIX premiered season one in December 2022 and season two in August 2023, so the library is recent enough to carry modern production values and a built-in fanbase — exactly the profile that converts when you intensify hooks and cut for under-two-minute beats. Vigloo says 35 episodes are available today, and spotlights its track record adapting long-form IP (e.g., a Bitch X Rich vertical spin-off), suggesting this is a repeatable pipeline rather than a stunt.

The operational tea: the press materials underscore what makes library-to-vertical feasible: clean rights, fast re-edit, then a language pass at scale. Vigloo’s US business has grown fivefold since its July 2024 launch, is “on track to ship 100+ English-language originals by end-2025,” and notes $86M in backing from Krafton, implying the platform has both the cash and post-production muscle to keep running this play. If you control catalog with clear music/talent terms, this is a practical roadmap to new revenue and UA creative.

One more detail for your deck: industry write-ups put the Amy Bensen micro-drama episodes at sub-2-minute cadence, which aligns with retention sweet spots we see across top-grossing apps. Even if your own format lands between 90–120 seconds, the takeaway is the same — compress the inciting question to second 10, then treat every cut like a cliff.

Korea is treating short dramas like a product line, not a one-off

At BCWW 2025 (Seoul), LG U+’s STUDIO X+U unveiled eight short dramas co-financed with Naver, with releases starting Sept 30 across Naver TV and its streaming endpoints. It’s the carrier + platform + webtoon stack acting like an assembly line: calendarized drops, webtoon-led IP, and distribution locked before premiere. For overseas partners, this looks like a templated co-pro route rather than sporadic experiments.

Disney × WEBTOON points to a fatter IP pipeline

WEBTOON Entertainment shares spiked ~30% on news of a non-binding pact with Disney to build a digital comics platform and a proposed 2% Disney equity stake. Trade and investor press peg the new service at ~35,000 titles spanning Marvel, Star Wars, and 20th-century catalogs. Even before any greenlights for dramatization, this is signal that mobile-native story supply is about to surge, fertile ground for optioning, teasers-as-ads, and micro-drama proofs around villain arcs and romance sublabels.

The US revenue picture snapped into focus

Business Insider put fresh numbers on the category: $1.3B in US revenue in 2025, with ex-China global micro-drama tracking to ~$3B, and ~75% of it coming from direct viewer payments after the free-episode funnel. That’s the most widely cited, mainstream framing of the US opportunity this year. Pair it with eMarketer’s ~1.2M US ReelShort viewers (Sep 2025), up from ~794k a year earlier, to model your own CPI/LTV with something sturdier than anecdote.