This director is vindictive.

Chapter 457 Such a narrow vision, this is what marketing is all about! This time, I'm even scaring myself with my boasting.

The entire Chinese entertainment industry was stunned.

Although no one believed Chen Mo's prediction of a 10 billion yuan box office, the topic undeniably generated immense controversy.

The haters were also dumbfounded.

Good heavens, this is incredible! One set after another, and they're even a series of interconnected schemes.

Previously, Chen Mo was vilified by haters as a cancer in the Chinese film industry because of the sentimental marketing of "Ocean Wedding".

Then netizens urged them to fight back, as they were eagerly awaiting this massive influx of traffic.

After all, you can argue about this until the earth explodes and still not get anywhere.

Everyone is different, and everyone has their own ideas. No creation is perfect. Even money isn't liked by everyone, let alone movies.

But to their utter surprise, Chen Mo's response was one thing, but just when they were waiting to refute him, he came up with another prediction of 10 billion! Okay, so this "cancer of the film industry" is no longer appealing!
Ocean Wedding? What's the point of arguing about that?!
The figure of 10 billion immediately caused a sensation across the entire internet!

Just as that "sharp-witted" netizen said, Chen Mo's move is another example of something happening in the atmosphere.

Even though everyone is mocking and disbelieving, this topic has gone viral whether you believe it or not.

Forget about nostalgia marketing and mermaid pearl marketing, they're all so lame!
"Ne Zha" was a huge hit. Regardless of whether the movie can reach the 10 billion yuan box office that Chen Mo predicted, at least Chen Mo's prediction saved the movie at least hundreds of millions of yuan in marketing and distribution costs!
The haters claimed that "Ocean Wedding" was entirely due to marketing, but Chen Mo directly said, "My friends, you're too narrow-minded. Let me show you what real marketing is!"

However, Chen Mo paid a heavy price, after all, he was born with a halo.

What kind of halo is he? Of course, it's that he doesn't speak platitudes or make grand pronouncements, because all the boasts he's made have already come true.

The three fingers from "Love is Not Blind" and the three fingers from "Dying to Survive" have both come true.

But back then it wasn't nearly as outrageous as it seemed. Even then, the boasting wasn't particularly exaggerated. But this time, it's a complete disaster.

At least at this moment, no one believes that a single domestic film can break 10 billion yuan in box office revenue!

Not to mention Chen Mo's fans or netizens, even Jiaozi, the director of "Ne Zha 2," Lao Wang from Enlight Media, and people from Shengshi Pictures all felt that Chen Mo had really exaggerated too much this time.

Despite the fact that "Ne Zha" grossed 5 billion yuan at the box office, their most optimistic estimate is that it will only be slightly better than the first film.

After all, the film market has been declining year after year!

No film has grossed more than 5 billion yuan since "The Battle at Lake Changjin".

Even if they thought that with the success of the first "Ne Zha", the sequel would have a high probability of success and the box office should not be bad, they never thought that it would be as exaggerated as Chen Mo said, doubling the box office, and that it was the starting point.

Then, sure enough, Lao Wang from Guangming couldn't sit still any longer.

Wang Changtian's call came very quickly.

After the call was connected, there was background noise and faint keyboard typing sounds.

Wang Changtian sighed, "Director Chen, after you dropped this '10 billion box office' bombshell, my office phone has been ringing off the hook with calls from investors! Just now, the CFO was crying and said that the budget for 'Ne Zha 2' has been redone thirty times—now the whole industry is waiting to see how we leverage a 500 million budget to generate 10 billion in box office revenue!"

Chen Mo chuckled and teased, "President Wang, back then you dared to gamble on domestic animation with 'Ne Zha,' why are you chickening out now? This isn't like the President Wang I know!"

To be honest, although Enlight Media's film investments over the years have been a mix of profits and losses, its investment in animation, especially in domestic animated films, is truly admirable to Chen Mo.

And "Ne Zha" is the reward for their years of investment.

At this moment, Old Wang across from me lowered his voice and said, "It's not that I'm cowardly! You know, a brokerage firm just asked me if I'm considering restructuring the animation business model using ARPU (Average Revenue Per User)? I even got that term from Baidu! Right now, there's a huge rumor in the secondary market that Enlight Media is going to use 'Ne Zha 2' to create a metaverse and fleece investors; the stock price is hitting the daily limit and they can't even hold it."

Yes, although many people do not believe Chen Mo's prediction, the performance of the first "Ne Zha" movie was good enough. Even if the second movie does not reach the exaggerated figure of 10 billion yuan in box office revenue that Chen Mo said, it is still possible to reach several billion yuan.

Moreover, thanks to the "10 billion prediction" publicity, the probability of "Ne Zha" succeeding has at least greatly increased.

The capital market is like a duck sensing the warmth of spring water; don't forget, Chen Mo recommended buying Enlight Media's stock back then. And everyone knows that as long as "Ne Zha 2" performs well, a surge in its stock price is inevitable.

Chen Mo also has the title of "stock god". Don't forget, Chen Mo single-handedly leveraged hundreds of billions of yuan in the AI ​​concept stock incident!

This gave the A-shares market a real sense of entering a bull market era for a time.

This time, although the investors also felt that Chen Mo's boasting was outrageous, they were even more impressed with him. Look, just one sentence was enough to ignite the topic. What could be more amazing than this kind of marketing?

So just buy it without thinking!

Chen Mo replied with a smile, "What's the rush? The 'billion-dollar Easter egg' in 'Goodbye Mr. Loser' has been buried for so many years, and now it's just being realized ahead of schedule. Let those analysts wait and see—whether their Excel spreadsheets are accurate or the audience votes with their feet."

Old Wang said with a wry smile, "Alright, anyway, we at Guangxian are also beneficiaries. It's just that your golden reputation, which you, Director Chen, have always kept up with, is about to be shattered!"
But, um, next time could we at least exchange a code word beforehand? My old bones can't take such a sudden attack!

Clearly, even Wang Changtian still felt that Chen Mo was using the "10 billion prediction" to promote "Ne Zha," essentially sacrificing his authority to endorse the film.

Chen Mo didn't explain further. Some things are useless no matter how much you say. When the results come out, everyone will know that he really wasn't bragging!

After hanging up the phone, Chen Mo felt somewhat helpless, although he found the feeling quite enjoyable.

After all, he already knew the outcome. As for whether his butterfly effect would affect the movie's box office...

Chen Mo felt that it would still have some impact, but it definitely wouldn't be a bad one.

Wang Changtian hung up the phone, and soon after, Chen Mo's phone rang again.

The caller was Director Jiaozi, the chief director of "Ne Zha".

Chen Mo wasn't surprised at all by his call; it would be strange if he didn't call.

The sound of pages turning over the storyboard for "Ne Zha 2" came through the phone. Director Jiaozi said resentfully, "Brother Mo, half an hour after your interview, my Weibo private messages exploded with 90,000 'begging for spoilers from the director who made billions'!"
The team's artists have gone completely mad; they insist on changing Ao Bing's scales into patterns representing billions in box office revenue, claiming it's so as not to hold Director Chen back.

Chen Mo couldn't help but laugh and said, "Isn't this great? It saves you the cost of concept design."

Director Dumpling on the other end of the phone sounded a bit frantic: "What the hell! The special effects supervisor just said he wanted to add an 'economics sanctity' setting to Nezha, so he could ride on his Wind Fire Wheels and surf on the K-line chart!"
Do you know what's the most outrageous thing? A platform actually approached us asking if we could create 'box office betting derivatives'—they wanted to sell Nezha's Universe Ring as an NFT!

Chen Mo's eyes lit up instead, and he said, "That's a great idea! Isn't Nezha the 'holy body of economics' right now? Enlight Media's stock has hit the daily limit."

"No, Director Chen, Brother Mo, Director Chen, now all the pressure has shifted to the production side. What if the box office is just a zero off in the end?" Director Dumpling wasn't as relaxed as Chen Mo; he genuinely felt immense pressure.

Of course, the main reason is that Chen Mo had already predicted a box office of 10 billion yuan, and he certainly didn't want Chen Mo's reputation to be damaged because of it. However, Chen Mo's boast was too big, to the extent that he dared not even think about it.

Chen Mo suddenly interrupted, "I'll cover any number of zeros you're short. Besides, you're the director of this series. Don't you have any confidence in this film?"

Director Dumpling couldn't help but roll his eyes. Do you want to listen to what you're saying?
Of course I have some confidence, at least I'm confident that we won't lose money, but I'm not so confident that I think "Ne Zha 2" can break the 10 billion yuan box office record!
"Alright, just change Shen Gongbao's 'Fellow Daoist, please stay' to 'Audience, please buy tickets,' and leave the rest to the market!" Chen Mo said calmly.

After hanging up the phone, Chen Mo shook his head and chuckled.

"Did you go too far this time? Isn't it a bit of a loss to promote the movie?" Fan Binbin walked over and said with some concern.

The main issue is that the entire internet seems to be waiting to see Chen Mo's invincible status shattered. Even though she, as Chen Mo's wife, has witnessed all the amazing things Chen Mo has accomplished over the years, she still believes that Chen Mo's prediction of a billion dollars is purely for movie promotion and to divert attention.

I never imagined that Chen Mo actually thought that way.

"Do you think there's any possibility that I wasn't actually bragging?" Chen Mo reached out and picked her up, placing her on his lap. He had to admit, among all the women, she was the most intimidating!
Even after all these years, Chen Mo still loves the feel of it!
Fan Binbin's face flushed slightly, and then, upon hearing Chen Mo's words, she widened her eyes and said, "You don't really think 'Ne Zha 2' can break 10 billion at the box office, do you?"

"Hehe, that's too narrow-minded. 10 billion is just the starting point! And the idea of ​​primary and secondary school students being assigned homework to write reviews of 'Ne Zha 2' might not be out of the question," Chen Mo said with a smile.

"Impossible, absolutely impossible!" Fan Binbin thought this was too outrageous.

After all, that's an animated film, not a movie like "Wolf Warrior 2" or "The Battle at Lake Changjin". Unless it really becomes a phenomenal film that breaks through the sky, how could the thing that Chen Mo said, such as teachers of primary and secondary schools across the country assigning homework to write a review after watching the film, possibly happen?

(End of this chapter)