According to industry leaders and their numbers, shows and movies focused solely on stereotypical straight romance have lost their stranglehold on Thailand’s entertainment industry. With fewer and fewer production companies focusing on delivering projects that center around plots and dynamics reflecting heteronormativity, the evolution of the sector has re-centered on the growing market for LGBTQIA+ and Boy’s Love content and its overwhelming success. Thus prompting a fervent expansion of the genre to a wider audience and their ability to pack upcoming line-ups with dozens and dozens of new shows.
Focus
Unlike many countries in the West, which default to the common parlance of the romance genre’s typical standards, eastern countries like Thailand have managed to secure their place within a niche that is only growing stronger year by year. The Boy’s Love genre, also known simply as BL, languished in obscurity for many years before production companies decided to tap into what would end up being a booming industry worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Spring boarding Thailand’s entertainment industry into the limelight and many aspiring Thai actors to superstardom overnight.
History
Ten years ago, the Thai television and movie industries reflected the standards for subject matter and romance stories found most often globally. Romantic comedies and plots that included a heavy dose of romance held most of the focus on stereotypical straight romances between female and male protagonists. In 2014, Thailand bucked this monotony by releasing their first official Boy’s Love (also known as a “Y” series) called Love Sick: A high schooler romance, wherein the main lead, Phun, gets into a fake relationship with another boy, to help his sister woo a girl she likes.
Initially, the audience reception for the show was mixed. It garnered praise for the storyline and all-inclusive nature while also being condemned by conservatives for its inappropriate and corrupting subject matter. The show’s ratings remained low until midway through its first run, when its production company, TIA51, instituted an all-out promotion blitzkrieg to garner more public attention. The gamble worked, and soon, Love Sick was the most-watched show on Thai television that year. Ten years later, its popularity remains, prompting the release of a successful remake in 2024.
Growth
Love Sick’s popularity was the catalyst for the shift and eventual take-over of the Boy’s Love genre in Thailand. Every year thereafter, more and more shows centered around men falling in love with each other grew, and with it came the eventual monetization typically seen with any new trend. However, unlike those that came before, the genre turned from a fleeting and niche movement among a few production companies to a booming industry hell-bent on solidifying its rightful place in entertainment media. Taking over the market, in totality, and leaving other genres, like straight romance and historical dramas, to languish in obscurity.
Major production companies, like GMMTV, ONE 31, and Mandee, announced their upcoming lineups for their 2025-2026 season in the late fall of 2024, and with them came a surprise to both fans and media experts alike. Not one of their dozens of new shows would star straight couples, leads, or romance, and their focus for the next two years would solely be on new additions to the Boy’s Love genre. Declaring that, at least for the time being, straight romance was officially dead in the eyes of industry leaders as the LGBTQIA+ and Boy’s Love genres have surpassed over 4.9 billion TBH in profits annually.
Outlook
With Boy’s Love dramas, affiliated merchandise, events, and concerts adding to the viability of the romance genre’s staying power in the industry, year after year its expected annual growth will reach 17% in 2025. With the implementation and additions of more OTT services and accessible streaming platforms, its reach continues to expand further into international markets and adds even more to Thailand’s ever-growing soft power on the global stage.
