The Chinese animation blockbuster Neza 2 was released in late January along with several other films for the local Spring Festival holiday period.
VCG | Visual China Group | Getty Images
BEIJING – For those who lived in China before the pandemic, the success of the animated film “Ne Zha 2” marks an industry milestone rather than a surprise.
The homemade animation stable drum beat was featured in 2023 shortly after the end of Covid-19 restrictions, with popular releases such as “Chang an.” According to Maoyan’s box office data, it was raked up for around $250 million as the only animated film in China.
The team behind “Chang An” works primarily from an old white building in Beijing’s sleepy suburbs. The ceiling is high. The stairs pass through the building and connect multiple floors to rooms and gyms.
When I visited this week, some animators were working on computers in the dark, competing to finish the film’s lighting effects in this summer’s film scene. Others have designed historic Chinese robes, detailed eyebrows, and re-created buildings.
“This place is no longer sufficient,” studio president Yu Zhou said in a Mandarin translated by CNBC.
He said a company of 380 people will need to hire at least 100 people next year. We need to keep up with our new production plans. Starting in 2026, two films will be released every year from one year. He said AI can only be a tool for now. Light Chaser is scheduled to move to a new office later this year.
Beijing-based Light Chaser Animation had over 380 employees as of February 2025.
The studio is sticking to a three-year production plan for all the films they make at the same time. It tries to imagine a future, and Yu said whether 20-30 million people will see it when the film is released. “Will this story work in three years?”
This film re-enacted the “Temple Curiosity Als” this summer, “Telling Story of the Ghost of China.” He said the studio is in discussions with “Hollywood mainstream players” to release the film in theaters overseas, including North America, at the same time as the planned launch of China.
Insinuating the studio’s appeal among global audiences, Yu said that after the release of Light Chaser’s “Green Snake” (a production of Chinese legendary production set in part in a futuristic city) in 2021. It went well on Netflix and claimed it remained in the non-top non-Top 10. Three weeks of English content.
Among the other animation features of the work, video streaming company IQIYI is developing “Master Zhong,” which is scheduled to be released in China this year. Ya Ning, the company’s senior vice president, said that Chinese animation has begun to break the “childish” image, transformed into an industry, and expanded into film products and games.
Recent History
Chinese animated films have just begun making splashes over the past decade.
“In the history of Chinese animation, there has never been a film like ‘Big Fish and Begonia’. …As far as Chinese industry is concerned, this bold, breathtaking fantasy adventure is alone,” wrote Variety, the entertainment industry magazine. The film was released in 2016.
This film was made by Beijing Enlight Media. This is the same producer behind this year’s “Ne Zha 2” and “Ne Zha 1” announced in 2019.
“Deep Sea” at Beijing Studio Octmedia was praised in early 2023 for its fantastic pastel colored rendering of a young girl’s healing journey following the abandonment of her mother.
Although popularity has not always changed to box office revenue, “Ne Zha 2” was able to succeed because it appealed to all ages. Liu said he is proud of China’s animation industry achievements, but he didn’t expect a blockbuster like another “Ne Zha 2” in the near future.
“Ne Zha 2” was announced in China in late January as one of six films for the weekly Spring Festival holiday, taking half of the box office revenue for that period. After its release in North America on February 14, Maoyan’s data shows that it defeated the film “Inside Out 2” as a top-gross animated film worldwide, with over 13 billion yuan ($17.9 billion) in ticket sales. was shown.
Strategy and Planning
In contrast to Light Chaser’s focus on in-house production, the manufacturers of “Ne Zha 2” relied on a variety of studios. The director came from Chengdu-based Coco Manga, but Beijing Enlight Media was the leading producer and distributor. China’s state media said nearly 140 companies contributed to production.
State media also highlighted how government subsidies from Chengdu to Qingdao support domestic animation. In 2021, Beijing laid out a national plan to “build China on major film players” by 2035.
Jonathan Clements, author of “Anime: A History,” warned that overproduction of films could make studios and investors uncomfortable and shocking. “Animation consumers themselves are a resource that needs to be managed carefully,” he said.
Clements added that they did so primarily for sales in China, as opposed to the way Disney’s blockbuster work earned more than $1 billion in box office in multiple countries. “You don’t have to worry about whether your story, your character, or your attitude will be played in another country.”
China’s plans also specified that domestic films should account for at least 55% of the country’s annual box office revenue.
Hollywood films have waned interest from domestic audiences when they are allowed to enter China. According to Maoyan, “Godzilla x Kong” was the only one to fall in the top 10 last year. “Oppenheimer” was unable to enter the top gross movies of 20 Chinese animals in 2023, and “Barbie” was even more late.
In 2019, “Avengers: Endgame” ranked third in the domestic box office, according to Maoyan, who is just behind the Chinese sci-fi sensation The Wandering Earth and the first “Ne Zha” film.
The characters and plots of many Chinese animated television series come from stories written online by relatively unknown authors. Chinese Literature, the operator of the leading apps for user-generated content, said 15 of the top 20 online animated series most viewed in the first half of last year are based on content from the platform. Adaptation on YouTube strives to broaden your audience.
Chinese creators also use generative AI for filmmaking. The Short-Video streaming app Kuaishou is releasing a seven-part miniseries called “New World Loading,” which was primarily created using the company’s Kling AI for video generation. Director Chen Xianyu said the team just fed a simple script to AI models rather than portraying characters.
