GuShiio.com Good start! On February 5, the total box office of the Spring Festival in 2025 exceeded 10 billion yuan, with 187 million movie-goers, setting the highest in the history of the Spring Festival. The box office champion, the movie “Nezha: The Devil Boy in the Sea”(also known as “Nezha 2″) is expected to sprint to the top of the domestic box office of 8 billion yuan. The audience’s enthusiasm for purchasing has also been rising: hand-made crowdfunding exceeded 10 million yuan, blind boxes and other popular products were sold out, the price of hot second-hand trading platforms doubled, and even the old co-branded products with the first film became popular. (Note: According to Cat’s Eye’s Eye,”Nezha’s Devil Boy Raises in the Sea” will have a total box office of 8.738 billion yuan in mainland China, February 5)
Compared with “Nezha 2″,”Fengshen: The War of War in the West”, the TOP 3 box office during this year’s Spring Festival, is the king of business. It has strategic cooperation with as many as 27 brands, and more than 20 derivatives and brand names (incomplete statistics). It has also tried the linkage of movies + cultural tourism, movies + games, and the forms of commercial cooperation have become increasingly diverse.
“Tang Tan 1990″,”Bear Haunting” and “The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Great Man” have all carried out extensive derivative development, from millet light surrounding areas, hand-made, blind boxes, prizes, etc., to advertising, games, advertising marketing, food and beverage, daily necessities, etc.
IP reuse scenarios have increased. Compared with the past, the six works released during this year’s Spring Festival are obviously prepared.
“Nezha Effect: Hand-made crowdfunding exceeded tens of millions, and second-hand surrounding areas doubled
As early as when “Nezha: The Devil Boy Coming into the World” was released, derivatives related to Nezha, Ao Bing, and Taiyi Real Man in the film triggered a buying boom. Nowadays, the animation IP sequel has set a new record in film history, and consumer enthusiasm and purchasing power have also reached new highs.
As of press time, on the Create New Goods platform, FunCrazy launched a hand-run crowdfunding project run by Nezha and other characters, which was launched on January 29. In less than 7 days, it exceeded 10 million crowdfunding, far exceeding the target amount of 100,000 yuan, exceeding 100 times, tens of thousands of people booked in advance. In addition, tens of thousands of FunCrazy movie acrylic colored paper have been sold.
Compared with when the first movie was released in 2019, consumer enthusiasm and purchasing power are doubling. The crowdfunding project for “Nezha 1” peripheral products, the 2019 authentic peripherals produced by Waiga, the trendy toys of minidoll, and the 2020 Goodsmile clay people hand-made project, the crowdfunding amount ranged from 2.12 million to 1.16 million yuan.
Among them, the co-branded blind box launched by Bubble Mart was sold out on the day it went on sale, with sales in the Tmall flagship store of 20,000 +; the online box was in a queue, and the delivery date had been scheduled to April. On second-hand trading platforms, the premium for end-box exceeds 20%, while the premium for Hand-in-Hand Nezha and Hand-in-Hand Ao Bing nearly doubles; Bandai’s Nezha plush dolls are close to 1,000 yuan, which shows their popularity.
Bubble Mart co-branded
Card Tour Co-branded Collection Card, iFoodToy Co-branded Food and Play Card, and Theater Limited Package
Audience enthusiasm is further catalyzed by trend categories and emotional infection in live broadcasts, forming a new consumption front. Card games co-branded cards are on the Douyin Grass List, and iFoodToy’s blind food and play boxes are even more popular, with sales of 300,000 + sets in a single live broadcast room.
This double kill situation of “box office and consumption” is not only due to the excellent quality of the film, but also due to the improvement of authorization and development awareness and the pre-emptive development layout.
Previously, the box office of “Nezha 1” reached 5 billion yuan, but derivatives revenue only accounted for 5%, and it was chased to be on the shelves. This time, Enlight Media carried out derivative development plans in the early stage of film development. Enlight Media disclosed that “Nezha’s Devil Boy Making the Sea” has planned and successively launched derivative products with a wide range of categories and a wide price range, including trendy toys, hand-made toys, statues, cards, stationery, food toys, badges, and establishment., publications, plush products, daily necessities, etc. This does not include more than ten brand collaborations between the film and consumer brands, including Rabbit Head Mom, YogurtDay, Shengmu Organic, Future Star, Mengniu, Glory, etc.
However, despite such advance planning, it is still difficult to meet the sudden increase, complex and personalized market demand. On social media, many netizens also asked: The film character Shen Gongbao has very few surroundings, and Shen Xiaobao has no surroundings for Goddess Shiji. Please speed up development!” rdquo; There are also handicrafts enthusiasts who make their own around Shiji Niangshi Second Creation, and many people in the comment area want to buy it. These phenomena also reflect that the current fire in the market may be even brighter.
Brand owners gather together movie IP and business cooperation to renovate their tricks
There is no doubt that film and television derivative development is already an imaginative part of film IP revenue generation. In particular, the crowdfunding project surrounding the “Wandering Earth 2” movie reached 118 million yuan in 9 days, and the commercial value of derivative development is obvious to all. In particular, with the popularization and penetration of the IP effect combined with the pan-trendy consumer culture, the market has reached a rapidly growing stage of development.
Compared with last year, there were 6 and 10 commercial cooperation brands at the end of the Spring Festival box office champion “Hot and Hot” and runner-up “Flying Life” respectively. This year, movie IP has not only become increasingly rich in the development of authorized products, but also continues to innovate in terms of commercial cooperation models and online and offline integrated gameplay.
“Fengshen: The War of War in the West” fully utilizes the connotation of IP cultural resources and combines offline real-life development to blossom in an alternative way. First, we created the “Fengshen Trilogy” in the commercial and cultural district of Wuyangli in Chengdu to create an immersive theater; then, we joined hands with Dujiangyan Scenic Area in Qingcheng Mountain, Sichuan to launch the limited edition mode of the Year of the Snake: during the Spring Festival holiday, we followed Yang Jian to visit Dujiangyan, exchanging slogans for manuals, and checking in while collecting Fengshen fragments, turning the film and television IP into an innovative real-life experience of cultural tourism + movies.
“Tang Tan 1990” focuses more on fashion and trend refinement in terms of authorized development to cut young purchasing power. For example, the joint names of Chimism Red Dust, Rope Knot, Wing Kun Frisbee, etc., based on the combination of cultural uniqueness in the film with fashion wear and trendy sports, not only maintains the style but also highlights the youthful trend attribute. According to Cat’s Eye data, 65% of the movie-watching group are female users.
In addition, joint advertising in the form of short films has produced unexpected results. Before the release of the “Nezha 2” movie, a series of short film advertisements linked to Mengniu Milk went out of the street in advance to warm up, but later rebounded with the popularity of the release and became a new hot topic for many people to follow
It is worth mentioning that “Bear Infested” and Yili QQ Star have joined forces to create a New Year flavor: they have launched IP gift packages and customized advertisements. In the short film, drinking milk and making dumplings are closely related to the New Year flavor scene. Last year, it also directly implanted the movie “Reverse Time and Space”, using QQ star milk to combine it with the plot, which was impressive.
It used to be said that Hollywood blockbusters maximize their IP value through derivative development, and there is a four-fold multiple relationship between derivative revenue and film and television content revenue. The revenue from licensed products of the “Star Wars” series has reached US$42.2 billion, which is four times the box office revenue; the “Frozen” series has generated US$11.3 billion in revenue in six years, of which US$9.575 billion comes from derivatives, accounting for 85%. Nowadays, China’s film market is also accelerating in this direction.
Future direction: Derivative development supports IP accumulation
“The good time has not really arrived yet. Previously, Playgeneration learned from exchanges with the person in charge of Wanda Time. com that from the blind box trendy entertainment epidemic to the hot millet economy, more and more public groups can experience the fun of collecting and purchasing from the IP surrounding areas. Interest and consumption awareness in derivative consumption are taking shape, which also allows everyone to see the confidence and opportunities in the derivative market.
IResearch research shows that Generation Z has both consumption motivation and consumption strength. The per capita monthly disposable income of Generation Z is 149% of the national average, which has also become a powerful booster for the entertainment IP derivatives market.
Thanks to being closer to the movie-watching community and mastering large-screen resources, theaters are also making a fuss about the big screen: based on the unique appeal of large-screen movie-watching, we will deepen scene development and turn movie-watching scenes into a comprehensive field that integrates multiple forms of entertainment consumption; retail transformation, starting self-research of products, and making breakthroughs in optimizing market supply. As early as 2022, Wanda established W+ trendy store;CGV opened trendy store in cinemas in some cities, selling a variety of trendy toys and surrounding products; Jinyi Studios launched YOOOOSHOP, an operating and retail brand around film, animation IP.
However, at present, movie peripheral sales still rely heavily on the popularity of films, and the sales opportunity window is as short as more than ten days. The opportunity period left for commercial development is extremely short, and once a certain product sells well, it is difficult to add additional production capacity. With the release of the movie and the decline in attention, both cards and hand-made surrounding areas are facing a lack of circulation transaction value.
Some industry insiders also pointed out that in addition to revenue replenishment, the greater value of derivative development lies in filling gaps in the schedule, especially for national manga IP films. The current domestic animation production model has been tempered in ten years. During the intervening years, continuous IP output is needed to maintain attention. On the one hand, it maintains old audiences, and on the other hand, it uses new content to capture potential interest groups. This derivative development is not limited to surrounding products, but also includes light content such as offline themed exhibitions, real-life entertainment, VR experiences, games, derivative animations, and even emoticons.
Compared with Disney, after the movie “Frozen” was released, families could easily purchase princess dresses, toys, costumes and other peripheral goods. Princess culture and princess aesthetics penetrated into all aspects, supported by a complex commercial ecosystem.
How to fully develop IP resources, continuously create new experiences, and strengthen IP emotional bonds tests the wisdom of film parties and market participants.
