Chapter 481: The Newcomer King Collector

A box office of 700 million is already enough to make it onto the current total box office charts of Blue Star Huaxia.

The entire Huaxia animation industry has been injected with infinite vitality by Luo Mo.

In reality, "Monkey King: Hero is Back" is indeed a milestone work.

On Earth, countless animation professionals revered it as a masterpiece precisely because it changed the landscape!

In 2015, after "Monkey King: Hero is Back" raked in 956 million at the box office, the entire animation industry went crazy.

Many people started holding cash, lining up, wanting to invest money into it.

The following year, "Big Fish & Begonia," which should have had a difficult birth, was successfully released.

With a striking art style and moving songs, the word-of-mouth was severely polarized; many people expressed Anger, criticizing its values as twisted and the female lead as an absolute bitch, ultimately resulting in a box office of 575 million.

From this, it can be seen that many domestic viewers have already started to buy in; they are willing to spend money on domestic animated films and are willing to walk into theaters for them.

By 2017, the "Xiong Chu Mo" series took in 523 million at the box office during the Spring Festival slot.

In 2018, the "Xiong Chu Mo" series remained strong, taking in 605 million during the Spring Festival slot.

Apart from this, only one film, "Wind Guardians," broke 100 million at the box office.

It always feels like, after "Monkey King: Hero is Back" pioneered a brand-new era, something was still missing.

It feels a bit lacking in follow-up momentum.

One must know that these past few years have been an explosive period for the film industry; domestic theaters have sprung up like bamboo shoots after rain, and film box office numbers have been rising steadily.

Under such circumstances, domestic animated films, logically speaking, should have been able to go even further.

It's not enough; this kind of box office is completely not worth looking at!

Four years of time just flashed by like that.

In January of 2019, an animated film that was not initially favored fired the first shot!

It is called "White Snake: Origin."

On its opening day, the box office was just over 10 million.

However, this snake had an unexpectedly tenacious quality.

Its daily box office performance was very stable; in such an unpopular slot, it actually ended up taking 429 million at the box office.

Whenever a new film was released, its screen share would be squeezed. Then, after these new films flopped, its screen share would rise again.

At its lowest, the screen share was only 6.8%; at its highest, it broke 20%.

The cold winter seemed to belong to the cold-blooded animal, the white snake.

The scorching summer soon arrived as well.

Just like it was fated, this summer belonged to a kid who played with fire.

"Nezha: Birth of the Demon Child" was released during the 2019 Shuji Dang.

The path it took, just like its title, was very unorthodox.

In those years, a flashy tactic started to become popular in the film circle.

That is, if you are very confident in your film, but you are unlikely to grab enough screen share when released during a popular slot, then just go crazy with preview screenings before the popular slot!

Other people's preview screenings were truly targeted screenings, perhaps arranging ten or twenty shows nationwide to test the waters.

"Nezha: Birth of the Demon Child," during its preview period, at its craziest, had 22,000 shows arranged nationwide!

It accounted for 6.3% of the total daily screen share.

Under this unorthodox operation, the word-of-mouth actually... exploded!

Countless people wanted to walk into theaters to see this little brat who stepped on Wind Fire Wheels and had dark circles under his eyes.

This allowed it to secure an unprecedented 32.5% screen share, breaking multiple records in one fell swoop.

That year, the entire film industry was stunned.

"What the hell is giving this much screen share to an animated film?"

"It's truly an eye-opener."

"Are they crazy! This is simply insane!"

But the final result was that this film, with 32.5% of the screen share, took 63.5% of the national daily box office share.

In other words, all other films were just little brothers! Giving you screen share is simply a waste.

The remaining films shared the other sixty-something percent of the screen share, but their combined box office wasn't enough to fight me alone!

The theater chains went completely crazy, even crazier than the dark-circled Nezha in the film.

When the screen share was at its highest, it broke 50%!

Countless people's perceptions were directly refreshed.

At this time, Luo Mo was not in a hurry.

"Nezha: Birth of the Demon Child," as the post-credits scene for "Monkey King: Hero is Back," naturally received great attention.

Many people saw Luo Mo's ambition, feeling that he wanted to build a Myth universe!

Regarding this, Luo Mo never made a public statement, nor did he post any comments on the internet.

"The timing is not yet mature."

"I am willing to wait a little longer."

………

………

The days of vacation are always so short.

Many people's annual leave had already ended early, and the workers began their new year of working life.

—And without double wages.

In Shanghai, Jiang Ningxi and Shen Yinuo had both returned from their respective hometowns to Xicheng, where they lived together.

"Jiang Jiang, did you miss me during the New Year!" As soon as Xiao Shen saw Jiang Ningxi, she gave her a big bear hug.

Fortunately, as a 【Leg Fairy】, Jiang Ningxi was quite a bit taller than her, otherwise, she might have been smothered to the point of suffocation.

"No, I was quite peaceful on my own," Jiang Ningxi said directly.

"Tch, you two-faced dead woman." Shen Yinuo wasn't angry; she had long since figured out Jiang Jiang's personality.

She sat straight down on the sofa, kicked off her slippers, patted the empty spot beside her, and said, "My beloved concubine, aren't you coming over?"

Jiang Ningxi rolled her eyes at her, but still obediently sat down beside Shen Yinuo.

While stroking her long, fair legs, Shen Yinuo asked, "Did you go see *Monkey King: Hero is Back* later?"

"I, I saw it," Jiang Ningxi glanced at her and added, "I saw it in the end."

On Blue Star, a certain ticket-purchasing app allows one to view friends' ticket-buying records.

This feature can be hidden or set to public.

Jiang Ningxi hadn't chosen to hide it; she... didn't even know this feature existed at all.

At the same time, she was incredibly baffled: was Xiao Shen so idle during the New Year that she actually came to check my ticket-buying records!

The reason she knew Shen Yinuo had peeked was because on the afternoon of the sixth day of the New Year, Shen Yinuo sent a WeChat message, excitedly questioning her: "You actually snuck off to the cinema to watch *Monkey King: Hero is Back* three times!"

"Good for you, Jiang Jiang, hurry up and bribe me, otherwise, I'll go report you to the company, and you'll be done for!"

Many private itineraries of celebrity artists must be controlled by their companies; there are many things the company does not allow its signed stars to do, so as to avoid some uncontrollable consequences.

Just like going to crowded public places like cinemas in private, Xinyu does not recommend it.

Although it is not strictly forbidden, sneaking off to the cinema so frequently would definitely lead to criticism.

Actually, this is still considered normal. Some male celebrities, due to special commercial reasons, cannot even decide their own hairstyles and must have approval from above before every haircut.

Jiang Ningxi was just about to reply to Shen Yinuo's WeChat at that time, when this chatterbox added another sentence herself: "Tsk tsk tsk, middle school deskmates are just different, working so hard to secretly support his box office results, huh?"

This made Jiang Ningxi delete the half-sentence she had already typed.

She lied, "The first few times I bought tickets, but something came up at the last minute, so I didn't get to see it."

"Ah? Is that so! Then you must go see it once, it's Not Losing, it's really good! The monkey is simply handsome to death!" Shen Yinuo continued her chatter.

Seeing that this silly girl was as easy to fool as ever, Jiang Ningxi let out a long sigh of relief.

It was precisely because of this that today, when the best friends reunited, Xiao Shen asked her if she had finally seen it.

On the sofa, Shen Yinuo continued to touch the highly elastic leg meat of a certain Leg Fairy through her pants, while saying, "It's good, right? I think the last few scenes were simply explosively handsome! If it weren't inconvenient to go, I would have wanted to watch it a second time."

A certain Leg Fairy who had been to the cinema four times to watch it silently nodded, expressing her affirmation.

Shen Yinuo took out her phone, checked the total box office of *Monkey King: Hero is Back*, and said, "Luo Mo is amazing, he is worthy of being the person I personally signed. Look, the box office is already over nine hundred million!"

This young lady of Xinyu used to call Luo Mo "my person" directly.

Every time she said it, she would be corrected by Jiang Ningxi, but she never changed her ways.

It wasn't until the news of Luo Mo being in a relationship became known to everyone that she restrained herself a little and changed it to "the person she personally signed."

Jiang Ningxi leaned over to look at the phone and said, "Breaking one billion is already a certainty."

"Wow! Then this time it really made a killing!" Little stars began to appear in Shen Yinuo's eyes.

At the same time, she couldn't help but exclaim, "An Animation film breaking 1 billion, it really refreshed everyone's perception. Luo Mo has made a name for himself in one battle this time; he is Afraid going to be deified in the animation world."

Her tone of voice was always exaggerated; Jiang Ningxi often rationally refuted her word choices, but this time she nodded in deep agreement, and even added a point.

"Xiao Shen, you're mistaken. Actually, it's not just the animation world; the entire film industry will be stunned," Jiang Jiang said.

"Oh right, that's true too, it's already entered the top fifty in the total box office rankings!" Shen Yinuo said.

In reality, like *Monkey King: Hero is Back* released on Earth in 2015, after so many years, it is still ranked 95th in the film history total box office rankings, still in the top one hundred.

And on Blue Star, *Monkey King: Hero is Back* is currently ranked 36th.

"Actually, there is one more point you haven't thought of," Jiang Ningxi said.

"Ah? What else?" Shen Yinuo asked.

"Director Tian Ou, you know him, right?" Jiang Ningxi asked.

"Of course I do, the strongest up-and-coming director of the past few years, his debut work won..." Halfway through, Shen Yinuo opened her little mouth, and the whole person froze.

Tian Ou, up-and-coming director, debut work *Car King*, total box office reached as high as 1.129 billion.

It is the highest-grossing work in the country directed by a Newcomer director!

If Luo Mo's *Monkey King: Hero is Back* breaks this record.

Then... he will be the new strongest 【Newcomer King】 in the film industry!

First the music scene, then television dramas, and now movies—are you a collector of the 【Newcomer King】 title?

"Breaking the record, and with an Animation film at that." Shen Yinuo finally understood why Jiang Ningxi said the entire film industry would be stunned by him.

Just imagine, which director had previously thought that such an outrageous thing would happen?

At first, many people were laughing at him.

Now, many people are so shocked by him that their jaws cannot close.

Jiang Ningxi's eyes were unfocused, and she couldn't help but think of the school gala during middle school.

Luo Mo had put on makeup from Opera, and many classmates pointed at him and laughed.

But when he stood on the stage, that high-pitched voice seemed as if it were going to lift the roof off, and those classmates could only stare in a daze.

Jiang Ningxi sat in the audience, deeply trapped in a certain emotion, unable to break free.

Perhaps, it is the same now; there is nowhere to escape.

—She was not trapped in that rain; it was just that the rain had become heavier.

(PS: Second update.)

(End of this chapter)