GuShiio.com ① Today, China’s film market has ushered in a historic moment: after 16 days of release, the box office (including pre-sales and overseas) of “Nezha’s Devil Boy Raises in the Sea” exceeded 10 billion yuan. The total box office is expected to exceed 16 billion yuan;
② A movie resonates with an industry. Behind “Nezha 2” is the joint efforts of 138 animation companies and more than 4000 animators across the country. This super IP has shown great commercial value on and off the screen.
Financial Union, February 13 (Reporter Cui Ming)China’s film market has ushered in a historic moment: After 16 days of release, the box office of “Nezha: The Devil Boy Raises in the Sea” exceeded 10 billion yuan (including pre-sales and overseas).
4.8 billion yuan, the top ticket for the Spring Festival; 5.8 billion yuan, the top ticket for China’s film history; 6.8 billion yuan, the top ticket for the world’s single market film history; 10 billion yuan, the 17th place in the global film history box office list… Since its release, every change in the box office figures of “Nezha: The Devil Boy in the Sea”(hereinafter referred to as “Nezha 2”) is making history.
At the end of the film “Nezha 2”, the scene of Nezha and Ao Bing working together to break through the bloody blood of Tianyuan Ding moved countless audiences. In reality, the joint efforts of 138 animation companies and more than 4000 animators across the country have contributed to the success of this film.
A film resonates with an industry. The popularity of “Nezha 2” is not only a box office miracle, but also a comprehensive breakthrough in China animation from technology to narrative. This super IP has shown great commercial value on and off the screen. This is not only a victory for the content industry, but also a vivid portrayal of the spiritual core of “breaking stereotypes and reversing destiny” conveyed by the film-when traditional culture is endowed with the soul of the times, when cultural confidence is engraved in every frame of light and shadow, the story of China has the power to shake the world.
Breaking records every day
The domestic animated film “Nezha 2”, which took five years to polish, was officially released on the first day of the New Year this year. The film not only won the top spot in the 2025 Spring Festival with a box office of 4.839 billion yuan, but also successively created new box office records in China’s film history with its good reputation.
As of the press release of the Financial News Agency, the box office of “Nezha 2″(including pre-sales and overseas) has exceeded 10 billion yuan, becoming the 17th in the global film history box office list and the 3rd in the global animated film box office list. It is the only non-Hollywood film among the top 30 in the global film history box office list, and it is also the first film in China film history to have more than 200 million viewers.
Even after the Spring Festival ended, the box office of “Nezha 2” rose instead of falling. From February 5 to 9, the film’s single-day box office exceeded 500 million yuan, which was even higher than the box office level on the first day of release. Especially on the first rest day after the Spring Festival holiday (February 9), the single-day box office of “Nezha 2” reached 761 million yuan, accounting for 82% of the market.
The film is not only popular in China, but also caused a sensation overseas. From February 10 to 12,”Nezha 2″ opened IMAX pre-screening in Australia and New Zealand, and was released in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, and Papua New Guinea on February 13, and in the United States and Canada on February 14.
According to Chinese Pictures, which is responsible for the international distribution of “Nezha 2”, in North America, the total number of “Nezha 2” films has exceeded 700, breaking the record of Chinese film distributors opening movie theaters in North America in the past 20 years (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan films), and the pre-sale box office has surpassed the first weekend box office of Chinese films in the past 20 years. In Australia and New Zealand, the total number of screenings of “Nezha 2” exceeded 116, breaking the record of Chinese-language publishers opening cinemas in Australia and New Zealand in the past 20 years (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan films), and winning nearly 20 years. Chinese film box office champion in Australia and New Zealand.
Lai Li, a market analyst at Cat’s Eye Entertainment, told the Financial News Agency reporter that the fire of “Nezha 2” not only raised the level of the Spring Festival this year, but also gave the film market a good start in 2025. “At present, considering that the number of films that have been scheduled for release in the next movie market is still relatively limited, the market popularity of” Nezha 2 “is expected to continue for some time. However, the next stocks to be screened in the film market are still relatively limited. We hope that driven by the popularity of “Nezha 2″, more excellent works with a certain market size will be finalized in the future, jointly helping the film market throughout the year. Continue prosperity.”
At present, the box office of “Nezha 2” is still soaring at an alarming rate, and its popularity continues to rise. According to Cat’s Eye Professional’s forecast, the final box office of the film will exceed 16 billion yuan (excluding overseas box office). If this result is achieved, then “Nezha 2” will top the global animation film history box office list and rank fifth in the global film history box office list, second only to “Titanic”.
The joint efforts of animators
In the previous work of “Nezha 2”, in order to support Ao Bing, the Dragon King mobilized all the dragons to create “Ten Thousand Scales” with the hardest dragon scales on their bodies, which can be called “the hope of the whole race.” In reality,”Nezha 2″ was achieved by the joint efforts of 138 animation companies and more than 4000 animators from the animation industry.
According to the main creative team of “Nezha 2”, the previous film “Nezha: The Devil Boy Coming into the World” has 1864 shots and 1400 special effects shots. This time, the number of shots in “Nezha 2” reached 2427 and the number of special effects shots was 1948. The number of special effects shots exceeded the total number of shots in the previous films.
In fact, after the previous work “Nezha: The Devil Child” was released in 2019, it was quite popular in terms of box office, reputation, influence and topic. It eventually created a box office miracle of more than 5 billion yuan, winning the box office championship in mainland China that year. Such a high starting point has brought unprecedented pressure to the production of “Nezha 2”.
In almost the same production time,”Nezha 2″ has doubled the number of characters, higher quality requirements, and at the same time has to be both aesthetic and artistic. The teams involved in the production all said frankly in interviews with the media: “It can’t be done, it can’t be done at all”!
In order to create the ultimate visual effects and strive to reach the top level in the industry, every member involved in the production devoted unimaginable efforts and efforts. It is understood that the main creative team of “Nezha 2” rewrote all the characters of the previous game. A single frame is rendered for more than 20 hours, and the average rendering time for one shot is more than 200 hours. For a picture that lasts only tens of seconds, the production of special effects lenses takes three months.
“Nezha 2” director Jiao Zi (real name Yang Yu) revealed in an interview with the media that during the film production, he had outsourced some key shots to top foreign visual effects production teams, but as a result, many shots were not satisfactory. At the same time, due to the differences in cultural backgrounds between China and the West, the cost of communicating with foreign teams is very high. In the end, it was the domestic team who worked hard and achieved better results.
“In the process of ‘fighting to the death’, we also realized the powerful and advanced industrial processes and technologies abroad. We are still at a learning stage, and the gap is definitely narrowing.” Dumplings said that the introduction of China culture to the world still comes from the work itself. Whether the script, story, and characters can impress audiences around the world cannot be accomplished through outsourcing.
Due to the huge size of “Nezha 2” special effects, any special effects involves the participation of multiple teams in the industry. Different companies are responsible for different aspects, including animation production, three-dimensional assets, special effects synthesis, etc. In the closing subtitles of “Nezha 2”, the names of 138 China animation companies are listed. Among them, there are traditional film and television giants, well-known professional animation companies in the industry such as BaseFX and Huaqiang Fonte, and more are small and medium-sized studios that are not well known to the public.
Domestic IP is rising strongly
“Nezha 2”, which has led China films to the magnitude of tens of billions, has shown huge commercial potential both on and off the screen. Animation industry insiders told the Financial News Agency reporter that IP is connected to an entire industrial chain. Only by ensuring that all links in the middle are profitable can we feed back content creation and achieve a virtuous cycle.
The box office share of “Nezha 2” is 39.32% for the film and 52.27% for the theater. Enlight Media (300251.SZ) previously announced that as of February 4, the cumulative box office revenue of “Nezha 2” was approximately 4.84 billion yuan, and the company’s operating income from this film ranged from approximately 950 million to 1.01 billion yuan. At present, the box office of “Nezha 2” has doubled to 10 billion yuan. Institutional sources estimate that Enlight Media’s revenue from this film may exceed 2 billion yuan and its profit may exceed 1.5 billion yuan.
“Judging from the box office results,” Nezha 2 “has shown huge commercial potential. As word of mouth continues to ferment and word of mouth from the audience, there is still a lot of room for growth in its subsequent box office. In addition, the film’s derivative development, copyright sales and other aspects will also bring considerable benefits.” Jiang Han, a senior researcher at Pangu think tank, told reporters from Financial News Agency that the success of “Nezha 2” is expected to drive the development of related industrial chains. For example, film and television tourism can develop tourist attractions and experience projects with the theme of Nezha; in terms of derivatives, more toys, clothing and other products related to films can be launched.
Enlight Media said that “Nezha 2” has planned and successively launched derivative products with a wide range of categories and a wide price range, including trendy toys, hand-made, statues, cards, stationery, food toys, badges, licensing, publications, plush products, daily necessities, etc., can meet the diverse needs of different groups of people.
The popularity of “Nezha 2” is driving “millet fever”. A reporter from Cailian found that its cooperative brands include Bubble Mart, Card You, FunCrazy, Card Collection Society, Smart Creative, and CITIC Publishing Group. Among them, a variety of peripheral products such as popcorn barrels, handmade clothes, and blind boxes were sold out online and offline, and netizens joked that “one is hard to find.”
(Photo by a reporter from the Financial News Agency)
As of now, the crowdfunding amount jointly organized by FunCrazy and “Nezha 2” has exceeded 27 million yuan. Bubble Mart’s “Nezha 2” Natural Fettle series of hand-made models have also been launched online and offline, and the delivery time has been scheduled for June 30. Bubble Mart said that it has urgently adjusted its production plan and is actively replenishing it. CITIC Publishing said that the pre-sale sales of the officially authorized picture book “Nezha·Past Events in the Three Realms” published by the company performed well, ranking first in sales of similar products.
From the popularity of the game “Black Myth: Wukong” last year to the record-breaking of this year’s “Nezha 2” movie, it has proved that China’s traditional culture and local elements can also be packaged with modern technology to create world-class and high-quality contemporary cultural consumer goods. Just like the theme of “Breaking stereotypes and reversing destiny” conveyed by the film “Nezha 2”, only with dreams and daring to collide with the world can you have the opportunity to change your destiny and let the world see a vivid, diverse and powerful China story.
