Chapter 460 - 246: Qi ’Midas Touch’ Sheng

Starting from July 13th, Nezha: Birth of the Demon Child began its large-scale advanced screenings.

At Qi Sheng’s request, the number of screenings exceeded 1,000.

An advanced screening of this magnitude was extremely rare in the domestic film industry.

If word-of-mouth failed, the box office would surely be a miserable failure.

But Qi Sheng, having seen the future, knew just how astonishing the final box office for Demon Child would be.

The advanced screenings grossed 61.83 million yuan.

This was somewhat unexpected, even for Universal Entertainment, which was in charge of marketing and distribution.

By convention, the opening day box office should be at least double that of the advanced screenings.

Thanks to these screenings, right up until the official premiere,

Demon Child maintained an unprecedented level of positive buzz on all platforms for a domestic animated film.

Besides a 93% recommendation rate from major Weibo influencers, a 9.7 on Maoyan, and a 9.5 on Taopiaopiao,

even the notoriously picky netizens on Douban gave it a high score of 8.8.

This was a significant lead over the 8.3 score of Return of the Great Sage.

Hailed as the new hope for domestic animation, Demon Child officially hit theaters on July 26th.

Theaters naturally increased its screen share.

Other films released during the same period suffered miserably.

Just one and a half hours after its release, Demon Child’s box office hit 100 million yuan.

When the official first-day box office numbers were released,

the figure of 138.5 million yuan sent shockwaves through the entire entertainment industry.

Demon Child even surpassed Despicable Me 3 to become the domestic box office champion for an animated film’s opening day.

After that, it was as if the film had cheat codes enabled.

Not only did it make up for the regret of Return of the Great Sage stopping short of the 1 billion mark,

but it also shattered the 167 million single-day box office record set by Zootopia.

In just three days, Demon Child ruthlessly surpassed it,

raising the bar to an unprecedented 280 million!

On its eighth day in theaters, Demon Child officially surpassed Zootopia’s total box office of 1.53 billion yuan,

becoming the highest-grossing animated film in Chinese cinema history.

This time, even the mainstream media couldn’t sit still.

Various official media influencers personally jumped in and began to lavish praise on Demon Child.

People’s Daily Online: "If you don’t let the audience down, the audience will promote you."

Xinhua Net: "A new era for domestic animated film. Congratulations to Demon Child for surpassing Zootopia in total box office!"

Guangming Daily: "Cheering on Demon Child, 2 billion is in sight!"

...

Seeing that the box office forecast for Demon Child had already reached 3 billion,

Light, the company that had previously sold the rights, was kicking themselves in regret.

Although the 300 million they received had earned them a small profit,

watching Demon Child’s box office explode was more painful than death.

But what was done was done; it was too late for regrets.

As the behind-the-scenes powerhouse, Universal Entertainment became famous overnight.

Though that description wasn’t entirely accurate.

After all, Universal Entertainment was a long-established film company.

But in the mainland, it had truly blown up thanks to Demon Child.

Universal Entertainment wasn’t the only one celebrating Demon Child’s massive success.

Over at Pop Mart, cheers were erupting constantly.

Scones, in particular, breathed a huge sigh of relief, finally able to relax completely.

He no longer had to worry about selling off the 400 million yuan worth of stockpiled merchandise at a loss.

Even though counterfeiters would soon follow, Pop Mart had more than enough time to reap huge profits.

Universal Entertainment even made an official announcement through its verified account:

Only merchandise sold by Pop Mart was officially licensed for Demon Child.

Riding the movie’s popularity, Pop Mart’s 400 million yuan worth of merchandise

sold out completely with almost no effort.

Scones immediately sent the profits, which had barely warmed his hands, to the partner factories.

He told them to speed up and continue production at full capacity.

You could say they were in a race against time with the counterfeiters.

The merchandise market was only so big.

The more they earned, the less the counterfeiters would.

Before Demon Child even left theaters, Little Nezha, with his two small topknots and dark circles under his eyes,

had already become Pop Mart’s most sought-after IP.

Compared to a national-level animation IP like this,

even Molly had to step aside.

Qi Sheng certainly wouldn’t miss a money-making opportunity.

He injected an additional 200 million yuan of investment into both Universal Entertainment and Pop Mart.

With its 200 million, Universal Entertainment further expanded its marketing and distribution efforts.

The previous 60 million in marketing costs, plus this new 200 million,

meant nearly 300 million was thrown out there, and the effect was naturally incredible.

You couldn’t open an app without being bombarded with news of Demon Child’s release and its latest box office numbers.

Hailed as the new hope for domestic animation, Demon Child lived up to Universal Entertainment’s spare-no-expense promotional campaign.

All sorts of celebrities and major influencers also jumped on the bandwagon,

either by reposting or showing off their ticket stubs.

This helped push Demon Child’s box office to climb higher and higher.

Over at Pop Mart, they put down another 200 million yuan in deposits,

demanding that the major factories run at full capacity to produce another 600 million yuan worth of merchandise.

One billion yuan was probably the limit of Demon Child’s popularity.

There might be room for profit later on,

but it would only be a slow and steady trickle.

Even so, Scones was already extremely satisfied.

From this 1 billion in merchandise revenue, Pop Mart’s gross profit would be at least 400 million.

Learning from the experience of designing merchandise for Return of the Great Sage,

Pop Mart had specifically targeted fashion-conscious young adults in their twenties as the main audience when designing products for Demon Child this time.

On their official Taobao flagship store,

the Demon Child merchandise they released was almost always in a state of being sold out.

Seeing how incredibly popular the Demon Child merchandise was, the counterfeiters were practically drooling with envy.

But they couldn’t get around the fact that they needed to design everything from scratch.

Add in production time, and they would be at least a week behind.

Qi Sheng didn’t let his legal department stay idle either.

Any merchant who dared to sell counterfeit Demon Child merchandise online was immediately reported and sent a lawyer’s letter.

Whether it was effective or not, they absolutely couldn’t lose on intimidation.

As of 5:00 PM on August 8th, Demon Child’s box office reached 3 billion yuan.

It officially squeezed out Crazy Alien to rank third in the annual box office.

It even had a chance of surpassing The Wandering Earth and Avengers: Endgame.

...

Lujiazui was arguably the area with the most expensive office rents in Shanghai.

But for Universal Entertainment, it was nothing.

Just from Demon Child alone, their net share of the box office had already reached 1.18 billion yuan.

Subtracting the 260 million in marketing and distribution costs and the 300 million for the rights,

they had already locked in a profit of 600 million yuan.

That 300 million for purchasing the rights

had been transferred to Universal Entertainment’s account by Qi Sheng as a loan.

Once Universal Entertainment turned a profit, repaying this loan was naturally the top priority.

If the film could reach a 5 billion box office,

after deducting the costs of rights and marketing, Universal Entertainment could make a whopping 1.4 billion.

Qi Sheng was in a great mood and upgraded the office location that Universal Entertainment had originally planned.

Since it was called Universal Entertainment, its headquarters couldn’t be in a shabby location.

Otherwise, wouldn’t they become a laughingstock?

But after looking around, only the iconic trio of skyscrapers truly met Qi Sheng’s standards.

However, the "Big Three" had strict requirements for their tenants.

At the very least, a company had to be a Fortune 500 enterprise.

Letting in some minor businesses would only lower their overall prestige.

Qi Sheng gave Wang Han a call.

The local rich kid was well-informed.

Hearing that Qi Sheng was looking for a suitable office building,

Wang Han immediately recommended several decent properties.

But they were merely "decent."

They were still a far cry from the kind of prestige Qi Sheng was looking for.

"Why don’t you just buy a whole building? Renting isn’t cheap either."

Wang Han had been accompanying Qi Sheng all afternoon and was thoroughly worn out by the young master’s pickiness.

’Buy a building?’

Qi Sheng mulled it over. It wasn’t out of the question.

From this one movie, Demon Child, Universal Entertainment had earned 1.4 billion.

No matter how expensive office buildings in Lujiazui were, they couldn’t be that outrageous.

"Wait, are you seriously going to buy a building?"

Wang Han had just been speaking casually, not expecting Qi Sheng to actually be tempted.

"Help me ask around. I want something near the Bund, preferably a newer building, the kind that can be sold in its entirety."

Qi Sheng listed his requirements,

asking Wang Han to help him think if there were any suitable projects.

"You’ve certainly got a lot of requirements, but I actually do know of an office building that might fit the bill."

Wang Han thought for a moment, then asked with a smile, "Jingyao Qiantan. Ever heard of it?"

"I’ve heard of it. What’s the price?"

"Around 1.5 billion. For you, that’s definitely nothing."

Wang Han’s tone was filled with unconcealed envy.

Who the hell knew an animated movie could be so profitable?

From the box office alone, Qi Sheng’s income was at least 1 billion.

Buying a building would be a piece of cake.

...

Qi Sheng brought Wang Han to the office buildings at Jingyao Qiantan.

Wang Han had contacted the Lujiazui Group in advance.

A vice president came over to accompany them on the tour.

"President Qi, our project has a total of six office buildings."

"Only Building 3 has been sold. The transaction price at the time was 1.517 billion yuan, which is 65,000 per square meter."

"I would recommend you consider Building T2. Although it’s slightly smaller, the total price is also considerably cheaper."

Jia Wei didn’t know much about the film industry,

but he had heard of the recent blockbuster, Demon Child.

The ubiquitous advertising, coupled with its terrifying momentum of shattering animation records,

meant that as the sole investor and distributor,

Universal Entertainment’s return on investment would be at least a billion yuan.

It was for this reason that Jia Wei was being particularly enthusiastic with his recommendation.

Otherwise, given his status as the Vice President of the Lujiazui Group, he certainly wouldn’t need to be so zealous.

"President Jia, let’s forget T2. I think that building we just saw was nice. What’s the asking price?"

Qi Sheng had toured all the buildings and had his eye on Building T6.

"The total floor area of Building T6 is 6,000 square meters larger than T2."

"The quality is also better. Our group’s initial asking price is 2.25 billion."

"If President Qi is sincere about buying, I can help you fight for a price of 2.2 billion, which comes out to 67,900 per square meter."

Jia Wei was stunned for a moment, but quickly quoted the price.

"2.2 billion is a bit high."

Qi Sheng was also very decisive. "The price I can accept is 2 billion. I can pay the deposit first."

"2 billion..."

Jia Wei hesitated. "I’ll need to report this. I will give President Qi an answer as soon as possible."

"Thank you for your trouble, President Jia."

Qi Sheng wasn’t in a hurry.

A transaction of this scale, involving billions, wasn’t as easy as buying a house.

The price he offered was very sincere; he had no doubt the Lujiazui Group would be tempted.

’One Demon Child might not be enough to cover the budget for the building,’ he thought.

’Then I’ll just make a few more blockbuster movies.’

Only after Jia Wei left did Wang Han dare to speak.

"Ah Sheng, spending 2 billion on a building, isn’t that a little extravagant?"

Wang Han hadn’t expected Qi Sheng’s standards to be so high, that he would turn down the smaller T2 building.

That was 2 billion yuan!

Even he couldn’t possibly come up with that much money,

let alone spend it on a single building.

Qi Sheng smiled and clapped Wang Han on the shoulder. "Calm down. I made over a billion from this one movie. A couple more and I’ll have the money."

"Uh, true..."

Wang Han agreed instinctively, but quickly realized something was off.

’Unless Qi Sheng can see the future,’ he thought.

’Otherwise, it’s absolutely impossible to guarantee that every movie he invests in will be profitable.’

But thinking of Qi Sheng’s Midas touch,

Wang Han couldn’t help but feel tempted to invest in a few movies with him.

But then he thought about the return on investment in the film industry.

Profitable movies were always a tiny minority.

Most movies never even got a chance to be screened.

’Forget it. It’s a good thing that Ah Sheng can make money.’ he concluded.

’At the very least, my initial investment of 500 million is definitely safe.’

’If I’m lucky, it might even double.’