AI comic drama quotes fall to 200 yuan per minute, profit divergence between producers and distributors

Since the start of this year, however, more and more people have been making dramas, and some AI comic drama production quotes have fallen from 5,000 yuan per minute to 200 yuan, or even just a few dozen yuan. Prices have dropped by 96%.

"You spend 100 yuan to make a drama, and someone comes along to recycle it for 1 yuan—so you lose 99 yuan," Chen Yuanhang said.

In his view, the platforms control users and traffic, while production companies are busy churning out content, and in the end they may not even recover their costs.

But on the other side, some people are already making money.

Hong Kong-listed company Duiba's AI short drama revenue reached 223 million yuan in the first half of this year, and on October 14 it further disclosed that this business has achieved monthly profitability for three consecutive months.

DataEye data shows that in September 2026, the Douyin platform alone added 51,800 new AI dramas and comic dramas, with playback growth exceeding 200 billion views.

In the same industry, some are still fighting for orders at 200 yuan a minute, while others have earned more than 200 million yuan in half a year. Who exactly is making the money?

A mere 200 yuan production fee, and people are still fighting for orders

On October 22, Sina Tech's "BUG" column reported that this year some AI comic drama production quotes have fallen from about 5,000 yuan per minute to 200 yuan, or even just a few dozen yuan.

Of course, prices vary greatly across different works. Assembly-line motion comics mainly rely on AI to make comic characters move; premium comic dramas still require professional storyboarding, art, and editing, with quotes reaching 1,000–2,000 yuan per episode.

More and more people know how to do it, so naturally prices have been driven down.

Even more exaggerated is production capacity. Sina Tech reported that a practitioner had encountered a comic drama company that, at full capacity, could produce 600 episodes a day.

Chen Yuanhang believes that this production speed has stripped a large number of production teams of their bargaining power.

"Those who can still survive now are probably companies with stable clients, stable teams, and the ability to produce premium and hit works."

Previously, mastering AI video production skills was enough to get orders and make money. Now everyone knows how to use it; for the same drama, if someone quotes 500 yuan a minute, someone else will dare to quote 300 yuan or 200 yuan.

Order profits are getting thinner and thinner, and some teams have started to find their own IP, make dramas, and then take them to platforms for revenue sharing.

But this path may be even harder.

On October 21, Blue Whale Tech interviewed multiple practitioners and found that some producers, based on backend revenue calculations, recently received only about 1–2 yuan per 10,000 views.

By that math, it is too hard for production companies to recoup their costs. Suppose a comic drama costs 20,000 yuan to produce and earns 2 yuan per 10,000 views; it would need 100 million views to cover the production cost; if it earns only 1 yuan, it would need 200 million views. IP, traffic-buying, and other costs are not even included yet.

What's more, what is least scarce right now is new dramas.

In the first half of 2026, Douyin's native AI dramas and comic dramas added 221,900 titles; by September, another 51,800 were added in a single month.

But among the new dramas in September, only 1.46% of works took 64.6% of the playback growth, and about 82% of new dramas had less than 1 million views that month.

"Content is now severely oversupplied," Chen Yuanhang believes. Without resources, major IP, or stable clients, it is increasingly unlikely for an ordinary team to suddenly become a hit with one drama.

More and more dramas are made, but less and less money is shared

Chen Yuanhang believes there is another reason production companies find it increasingly hard to make money: platforms control traffic and revenue-sharing rules.

"Platforms control C-end users, but production and distribution teams find it hard to get the corresponding returns."

He even estimates that ByteDance's share in the relevant market exceeds 70%. However, this figure lacks a unified, verifiable public basis and can only be regarded as his personal judgment.

For reference, DataEye statistics show that in September, Fanqie, as an associated distributor, corresponded to new drama playback growth of 111.6 billion views, accounting for 53.3% of the month's new drama playback growth on Douyin.

After channels become concentrated, how money is split once content goes online becomes an unavoidable issue for production teams.

Take Hongguo as an example: viewers watch dramas for free, the platform earns revenue through advertising, memberships, and other means, and then pays content providers minimum guarantees, revenue shares, or bonuses according to agreements.

According to Blue Whale Tech, short drama revenue sharing is mainly related to new user viewing time and dynamic settlement unit prices, but the unit price changes with platform revenue, cooperation methods, and other factors, and is not publicly disclosed.

Some producers say they can see how much was ultimately shared in the backend, but it is hard to accurately estimate revenue before making the drama.

Money for staff, computing power, and even IP procurement must be spent in advance. Whether the drama becomes popular after launch and how much will be shared must wait for platform settlement.

Previously, some projects still had minimum guarantees, so after completion one roughly knew how much money could be received. Now some minimum guarantees have been canceled, and producers rely more on performance to earn returns.

Platforms reducing minimum guarantees reflects a consideration to weed out low-quality content, but the risks borne by production teams have also increased.

The rules are still changing. On September 22, Hongguo updated its premium AI drama production activity policy, canceling the series scale coefficient, effective from October. Teams that previously relied on continuously producing sequels to the same IP to obtain extra rewards need to recalculate.

On October 19, ByteDance's Volcano Engine launched the Seedance premium AI drama incentive plan. Works that enter the top 50 of Hongguo's monthly AI drama popularity list and meet the specified model usage conditions have a chance to receive rewards of 50,000 to 200,000 yuan.

But only half of the reward is cash; the other half is computing power tokens or creation tool usage rights.

Even if one receives the maximum reward of 200,000 yuan, only 100,000 yuan in cash can actually be used to pay salaries, and the remaining 100,000 yuan must be used for related tools or computing power.

The production team spends money to use tools to generate videos, then takes the works to platforms to compete for traffic, and finally splits revenue according to the rules.

Platforms also have advertising revenue.

An advertising service provider interviewed by Lanjing Technology revealed that Hongguo's brand advertising quote is about 25 yuan per thousand impressions. Of course, this is only the service provider's quote; it cannot be directly compared with the production side's revenue share, and even less can it be used to calculate platform profits.

Of course, platforms also have R&D, review, and operating costs, so it cannot be concluded from this that platforms necessarily earn the most. But for production teams lacking stable clients, income is becoming increasingly difficult to predict.

This company previously focused on internet advertising and user operations, and only entered the AI short drama industry in January this year. Unexpectedly, in just half a year, the new business contributed more than half of the company's revenue.

In the first half of 2026, Duiba's AI short drama revenue reached 223 million yuan, accounting for 51.2% of the group's total revenue.

How does it make money?

Duiba did not merely do video contract work; instead, it took on scripts, production, and distribution. It first uses AI to produce short dramas, then through its self-built distribution system pushes works to channels such as Douyin, Kuaishou, and WeChat Channels, earning revenue from content distribution and commercialization cooperation.

In doing distribution, Duiba has returned to its old line of work. For many years, it has dealt with advertisers and traffic, knows how to place ads and find users, and has accumulated data analysis and ad placement experience. Now, with short dramas, these experiences can still be put to use.

Production costs are also falling. Duiba disclosed that its self-developed screenwriter Agent has increased screenwriting efficiency by 5 to 8 times, and some work that originally required multiple people to coordinate can now be handed over to AI.

As output rose, views also increased.

In July this year, the new total views of Duiba's AI short dramas across the internet exceeded 6.8 billion; by September, this number had risen to more than 26.4 billion, and the number of series with over 100 million views in a single month also increased from 22 to 32.

On October 14, Duiba further disclosed that, according to unaudited internal accounts, the AI short drama business is expected to have achieved monthly profitability for three consecutive months.

However, the company did not disclose in detail how much of the 223 million yuan in revenue came from platform revenue sharing, copyright transactions, or other cooperation. The group as a whole still lost 25.33 million yuan in the first half of the year, and whether the short drama business can continue to make money still depends on subsequent performance.

But Duiba at least offers one approach: while many production teams are still fighting over orders worth 200 yuan per minute, it has already taken the business to the distribution end. After a drama is made, it still needs to find ways to get more people to watch it, and then earn revenue from content distribution.

Of course, not everyone can follow Duiba's path. Without ready-made ad placement experience and channels, doing distribution oneself may also lose money.

So, do small teams lacking these resources still have a chance?

Chen Yuanhang believes that in the future, IP and screenwriters may be more valuable.

"People who control IP can have a certain income, and for good screenwriters, human brains are still valuable."

The reasoning is not hard to understand. Whether it is cultivation, counterattack, or revenge, some dramas can keep audiences binge-watching dozens of episodes, while some are swiped away within the first two minutes. The difference may lie in how characters are shaped, how conflicts are arranged, and whether the suspense for the next episode is attractive enough.

But for those small teams that only take orders using AI tools and have no IP or stable clients, his concern is easy to understand.

At the beginning of the year, one minute could sell for several thousand yuan; now people are fighting for even 200 yuan. More cruelly, even though production has become cheaper, dramas have not become easier to sell.

AI can produce 600 episodes of comic dramas a day, but only by selling these dramas and keeping viewers can one truly have a chance to make money.

This article comes from the WeChat public account "Pencil News" (ID: pencilnews), author: Pencil News, published by 36Kr with authorization.