webnovelvip Chapter 280: First Day Box Office, Another Miracle
Chapter 280: First Day Box Office, Another Miracle
The Labor Day holiday officially kicked off on May 1st.
The early summer breeze already carried a hint of heat, but the entire film market in Xia Kingdom was even hotter than the weather.
Amidst the eager anticipation of countless viewers, "The Great Battle of Time and Space" officially premiered in theaters across the country on this day.
Inside the headquarters of Light Chaser Animation Studios, Gu Nan was also monitoring real-time box office data.
Despite the overwhelmingly positive reviews from the preview screenings a few days ago, with veteran content creators and professional film critics giving exceptionally high praise, Gu Nan knew in his heart that the film's quality was absolutely top-notch. However, at this moment, as the film was to be released in theaters and put to the test by audiences nationwide, he was still somewhat nervous.
After all, this is Light Chaser Animation's first foray into the theatrical market.
The data on the big screen kept changing.
The film started pre-sales seven days ago, and as of midnight last night, the total pre-sale box office reached 6000 million yuan.
In Gu Nan's memories from his previous life, this achievement was roughly equivalent to the first-day pre-sale results of popular films during the 2026 Spring Festival season, such as "The Swordsman: The Wind Rises in the Desert," "Avatar 3: Fire and Ashes," "Hot Hot," and "Super Mario Galaxy Movie."
While the results were certainly impressive, even breaking the pre-sale ceiling for tokusatsu films in the previous era, it still seemed to fall short of those truly top-tier blockbusters.
In the conference room, the uncle representing Bilibili Pictures frowned slightly: "Director Gu, this 6000 million pre-sale... is not bad, but we've invested so many resources in marketing and distribution, hasn't the screening rate fully translated into box office revenue yet?"
Gu Nan shook his head calmly: "No need to rush. The best beneficiaries of pre-sale box office are fan-driven films with top-tier celebrities and fans boosting their ratings, or tear-jerking romance films targeting female audiences, which can demonstrate exaggerated pre-sale appeal well in advance."
He opened his tablet and pulled up an audience profile: "Who is the core audience for our 'Time-Space Showdown'?"
"The audience consists of male viewers, tokusatsu fans, and a large number of teenagers and children."
"This group's movie-going habits are not about grabbing tickets a week in advance. They are more accustomed to deciding where to go on the day of the movie and then buying a ticket for a movie two hours later. The real show is happening today during the day."
as predicted.
At 10 a.m., shopping malls in major cities across the country opened for business one after another, and cinemas welcomed the first wave of people.
The numbers on the box office billboards were like a sleeping dragon suddenly awakening, rising at a terrifying speed.
It was exactly 12:00 noon.
"It's broken! It's broken 1.5 million!" The data team employees jumped up from their workstations.
The financial representative sent by the Gu Group, a usually impeccably dressed and stern middle-aged man, jumped up from the sofa with excitement: "Half a day! 1.5 million!"
Mr. Chen was so excited he rubbed his hands together: "Quick, quick! Bring up the champagne we've prepared! Open the champagne! This is too much!"
"Based on the model's calculations, with this momentum, breaking even is guaranteed, and we can even make a profit of half!"
"Stay calm." Gu Nan raised his hand and pressed down. "It's too early to open the champagne now. The real golden time for the movie is during the afternoon and evening dinner screenings. This 1.5 million is just an appetizer."
He stared at the big screen, quickly applying the box office prediction model from his previous life to his mind.
Based on the current trend on the first day, and with the subsequent key period of one and a half months, the total box office of this film will be at least between 1.5 billion and 2 billion.
This can not only recoup the initial investment but also generate an exceptionally substantial income.
The surprises continue.
It was 2 PM.
The first group of viewers who had finished watching the morning film walked out of the screening room.
Meanwhile, Lao Tang and other content creators and social media influencers who had seen the preview screenings released their analysis and recommendation videos, which they had been working tirelessly to edit overnight.
Bilibili's film and television section and tokusatsu section were instantly flooded.
Old Tang's video covers are simple and direct, with the title in large gold letters: "You'll regret it if you don't watch! Spoiler alert! The three heroes together! The ultimate romance in tokusatsu history!"
As soon as the video was released, thanks to the official support and promotion, the traffic exploded several times over, immediately becoming a trending topic on the entire site.
The barrage of comments was so dense it almost completely obscured the screen.
[Just came out of the movie theater! It was so exciting! I cried like a fool in my seat!]
[Watching these special effects in IMAX is absolutely amazing!]
[For those of you who haven't bought tickets yet, hurry up and grab them!]
I'm so curious, what would happen if I dreamed of meeting the actor who played him?
Haha! I really want to see how people would react if Ultraman appeared in the real world!
[Can anyone continue this storyline? How about some fanfiction?!]
All I can say is that the Demon King's two guardians truly lived up to their name, delivering a stunning display of light to our third brother!
[Gaia was found to be slacking off, so we've replaced her with new henchmen: now Tiga, Dyna, and Gaia are working together to serve you.]
[Spoiler alert: This show is basically about summoning Ultraman of Light using a monster egg.]
[666, and it's still a demon pill!]
"Time-Traveling Showdown" has appeared on the trending lists of major mainstream platforms.
With huge traffic dividends right in front of them, even ordinary self-media bloggers who originally had no intention of creating related content couldn't sit still any longer and frantically rushed to create content to ride the wave of popularity.
A virtuous cycle is formed instantly.
The internet is flooded with enthusiastic recommendations from enthusiastic fans, and a constant stream of short videos and fan-made compilations have completely piqued the curiosity of those who were initially hesitant.
At 3 p.m., Gu Nan opened the ticketing app on his phone and casually searched for the major cinemas in the vicinity.
Except for the most secluded corner seats in the first row, all other screenings were packed!
Seeing the alarmingly low attendance figures in the backstage area, managers of major cinema chains immediately began to urgently rearrange the film schedules.
Within just a few hours, the daily screening rate of "The Great Battle of Time and Space" approached a terrifying 40%.
Quantitative change leads to qualitative change.
On short video platforms like Yinfu, the "51 Play Plan" sharing section has seen a surge in entries related to "taking children to find the light." Countless parents have shared videos of themselves leading their children into the movie theater.
Because it was such a phenomenal success, even official media in some regions began to report on it, marveling at the astonishing viewing frenzy sparked by a domestically produced tokusatsu film.
At 5 p.m., the data center reported good news: the total box office had broken through the 300 million yuan mark!
In Gu Nan's previous life, this achievement would have been almost on par with the phenomenal success of "Avengers: Infinity War" during its premiere.
The main reason is that they seized the right opportunity, location, and people so well.
Special effects films, under the management of Light Chaser Animation Studios, have almost become a national IP, and there weren't many domestic films that could compete with them during the May Day holiday.
Moreover, the online buzz is so huge these days that almost no matter whether you follow Ultraman or not, if you scroll through no more than twenty videos on Douyin, Kuaishou, or Bilibili, related content will inevitably pop up.
As the saying goes, "A tall tree catches the wind," and naturally, it also receives some harsh criticism.
However, because Gu Nan's films are of high quality, with tight plot logic and top-notch special effects, there is no real weakness that can be exploited. These scattered negative reviews don't even make a ripple.
And this is all thanks to the contrast provided by its peers.
A competing film released at the same time, a patriotic film, was seeing its box office performance being crushed, and the film's producers were getting desperate.
They bought a bunch of similar press releases, and insisted on portraying the creators' inexplicable details, such as "insisting on not using anesthesia even when they had scrapes," as a sign of their dedication to the film, and then posted them wildly online.
The comments section below is full of obviously fake AI comments, mindless praise, leaving casual viewers completely bewildered.
Even worse, a certain animated film that thought it was also aimed at children, seeing that all the kids were hooked, started a confusing marketing campaign, shamelessly piggybacking on the Ultraman craze.
In the interview, he talked about "traditional culture" and "family is the foundation," and even went so far as to say that "if you want to watch animations based on traditional Chinese culture, some monsters are not nutritious."
This act of comparison and disparagement was met with widespread ridicule online, ironically generating more buzz for "The Great Battle of Time and Space".
Gu Nan's sincerity and humility, in stark contrast to the confusing actions of his competitors, created a striking and tragic difference.
Night was falling.
Gu Nan dismissed the group of staff who were also monitoring the film's box office performance with him, pulled his hat down low, and put on a thick mask and sunglasses, covering himself up completely.
Alone, he sneaked into a luxury cinema in the city center and bought a corner ticket in the last row before the movie started.
He accompanied the film through the darkness until the end of its opening day, from the perspective of an ordinary viewer.
It's exactly 24:00.
On the big screen, the film ends with a freeze-frame on Gulliver's Travels, signed "My Higher Self Dream".
Gu Nan took out his phone and refreshed the background data.
The box office on the first day was 4.1 million.
Four hundred and ten million.
In Gu Nan's memories of his previous life, only a few films, such as "Ne Zha", "The Wandering Earth 2", "Monster Hunt 2", and "Spider-Man: Far From Home", were able to achieve this result on the first day.
While opening day box office figures don't tell the whole story, some films have a good opening and follow-up performance, while others have a strong word-of-mouth effect that leads to continued success and even a comeback.
For example, "Ne Zha 2" eventually reached a box office of 100 billion yuan, breaking the domestic box office record.
Perhaps Gaia cannot do that.
This is just the beginning... but it's enough.
Gu Nan looked at his phone; all his chat, social, and work apps had turned into a red 99+ notification.
Colleagues' sharing, partners' congratulations, and the frantic mentions in various group chats...
Gu Nan smiled easily and pressed the power button.
The phone is off.
At this moment, he didn't want to care about anything else; he just wanted to quietly enjoy the movie again in this dimly lit theater.