Showbox, the South Korean studio behind the 2024 box office juggernaut Exhuma, has signed a co-production deal with the microdrama app ReelShort - the latest sign that Korea's film establishment is treating vertical drama as a serious business category rather than a passing fad.

Under the agreement - announced on the eve of APOS, the Asia-Pacific media industry conference in Bali - Showbox will co-produce short-form series based on ReelShort's existing properties, with original Showbox-developed titles to follow. The content will stream exclusively on ReelShort. The first Korean-made batch - mostly romance fare, with titles like Tell Me Not to Love You, My Secret Lover Is His Brother and Queen Never Cry - suggests that, for now, Showbox is working within microdramas  usual pulpy genre conventions.

That a studio of Showbox's pedigree is making one-to-two-minute melodramas is a notable milestone for the form. One of Korea's major theatrical distributors, the company is behind some of the country's biggest films - such as Exhuma, which earned $93 million at the global box office in 2024 - and also produces premium K-drama series, including the Netflix hit A Killer Paradox. Showbox's involvement holds out the promise of higher-quality K-drama production values for a format widely dismissed as cheaply made and disposable.

And Showbox is not alone - much of Korea's entertainment establishment has begun exploring the microdrama format over the past year. CJ ENM's streamer Tving launched a vertical short-form section in 2024, telecom KT's Studio Genie, previously the conglomerate's general drama-and-film production arm, refocused on short-form series, and several top-grossing filmmakers - among them Lee Byeong-heon, director of the all-time Korean box office champ Extreme Job - have dabbled in the genre. The number of Korean short-form platforms swelled from around 20 in 2023 to nearly 90 by early 2025, as the industry wagered that Korea could command the higher-quality end of a market so far built on sheer speed and volume.

For Showbox, the move also reflects an attempt at diversification. A

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