Summary of the Key Points in Plain Language
Recently, there has been a milestone event in the domestic film and television industry: the first long drama entirely produced by AI, "Hou Xiyou Ji" (The Sequel to Journey to the West), has been released on Mango TV and Hunan TV, causing the underlying listed company, Mango Super Media, to experience a 20% increase in its stock price for two consecutive days. This is a remarkable achievement. Prior to this, AI-generated short dramas had already disrupted the traditional market for真人-made short films, with over 220,000 new AI-generated short films launching online in the first half of 2026. AI has thus moved from being a peripheral tool to playing a central role in the production of long-form content in the film and television industry. The industry is both excited and skeptical: excited because the cost of making dramas has been reduced by a factor of ten, allowing anyone without a film or television background to create content; skeptical because they wonder if AI will take away all the jobs, and whether this wave of innovation will be a blue ocean where everyone can benefit or a brutal competition where only the fittest survive.
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Detailed Explanation of the Key Points
1. The Cost-Savings of AI in Drama Production Have Surpassed Traditional Film and Television Professionals' Expectations
The most immediate advantage of using AI in drama production is its cost-effectiveness, which is astonishing even to industry insiders:
- The cost of producing each episode of the AI-generated long drama "Hou Xiyou Ji" is only 900,000 yuan, or 20,000 to 30,000 yuan per minute, which is less than one-tenth of the cost of traditional animated long dramas. For example, a 3-minute battle scene with supernatural characters would have previously cost at least four to five million yuan to produce, but with AI, the actual cost is only 20,000 to 30,000 yuan.
- An average amateur, not a professional in the film and television industry, could spend two months creating 50 episodes of an AI short drama for a total cost of 15,000 to 20,000 yuan, with each episode costing less than 400 yuan. In contrast, the cost of a single episode of a high-quality真人 short drama can be hundreds of thousands of yuan, making the difference thousands of times.
Why such cost savings? In the past, producing disaster or science fiction films required substantial investment in sets and special effects, or months of post-production work. Now, with AI, you can generate scenes of collapsing cities and flying mutants in just a few minutes, eliminating the need for expensive sets and actors, thus lowering the barriers to producing high-cost content.
2. Mango's Stock Price Surge: The Capital Market Sees Hope for the Long-Form Video Industry
Domestic long-form video platforms have been losing money for nearly a decade, with the main issue being the high cost of content. Producing a high-quality drama can cost hundreds of millions, and if viewers don't like it, all that investment is lost. The emergence of AI has solved this problem: it not only reduces production costs but also allows creators to build a "digital asset" that can be reused for future projects, such as sequels, spin-offs, and promotional videos. This reduces the risk associated with high-cost production and opens up new possibilities for niche and less popular stories.
3. The Barriers to Entering the Drama Industry Have Been Lowered, but Most People Still Can't Make Money
Many believe that with AI, anyone can become a director, but this is only partly true. While the technical barriers have been lowered, the barriers for human creators have increased. AI can generate visuals, but it can't write good scripts or create memorable characters. High-quality AI dramas still require significant effort, such as finding unique and copyright-free images and manually fixing bugs in large scenes.
4. AI Video Tools Have Entered a Price War, and Creators Are Just Beginning to Benefit
The companies providing AI video generation services are competing to lower prices to attract customers. The cost of generating 1 second of 2K-quality video used to be two to three yuan, but now it's only 0.8 yuan per second. This has significantly reduced the cost of producing high-quality video, making it more accessible to creators.
However, 90% of AI-based drama companies are still losing money. The reason is that while the technical barriers have been lowered, the barriers for human creators have increased. AI can generate visuals, but creating compelling content still requires skill and effort.
5. AI Won't Replace Real-Actor Dramas; It Only Targets Poor-Quality Content
The concern that real actors will lose their jobs is unfounded. Viewers often complain that AI-generated dramas lack emotional depth and authenticity. AI can produce thousands of perfect faces, but it can't replicate the subtleties of human expressions or the unique elements of real-life settings. What AI replaces are the low-quality dramas with cheap special effects and poorly written scripts. With lower production costs, more niche and less popular stories can now be produced, offering viewers a wider range of content. In the end, what matters in the industry is the ability to tell a good story, something that AI can never match.