This director is vindictive.

Chapter 459 I was just bragging, why are they all ganging up on me?
Compared to the discussions surrounding Chen Mo's boasting or his brilliant marketing tactics, his sudden rise to fame has made the "10 billion prediction" the hottest topic, but it has also caused other films released during the Spring Festival to suffer.

In fact, the 2025 Spring Festival film season can truly be described as a gathering of heroes and a collection of blockbuster films.

Regardless of their quality, at least on paper, they are not easy to deal with.

Besides "Ne Zha", there's also Wu Er Shan's "Fengshen II: The War of Xiqi", Tsui Hark's "The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Great Hero", the fourth installment of the "Detective Chinatown" series, "Detective Chinatown 1900", and "Operation Jiaolong", which can be considered a sequel to "Operation Red Sea".

Oh, right, and there's also the ever-present animated film "Boonie Bears: Reboot" – a staple of the Spring Festival releases!
In fact, on paper, "Ne Zha" doesn't really have any advantage.

Although as someone who has been through it all, Chen Mo knows that Wu Ershan's "Fengshen Part 2: War of Xiqi" can be said to have completely collapsed in terms of reputation, coupled with the exposure of his true colors, so in the end it was only in the 1 billion level.

Tsui Hark's "The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Great Hero" also received poor reviews.

However, its actual strength is in no way inferior to "Ne Zha"!
Putting everything else aside, apart from Tsui Hark's "The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Great Hero," almost all of the others can be considered sequels.

Moreover, it includes well-known domestic IPs such as the "Detective Chinatown" series. Although the third installment was a critical flop, no one dares to underestimate it.

Therefore, this year's Spring Festival film season is absolutely packed.

Although the first "Ne Zha" film had a box office of 5 billion yuan, it was a formidable competitor to other films, but it was not without its own strength.

However, with Chen Mo's "10 billion prediction" suddenly appearing out of nowhere, wow, the promotion and distribution schedule of all the Spring Festival films was completely disrupted.

After all, everyone is now focused on whether Chen Mo is just bragging, and whether his boast will come true.
As for other films, they were sidelined.

To some extent, Chen Mo really lacked martial ethics, directly taking the initiative and delivering a blow that stunned all the other movies released in the same period!

Is this still available?

The other companies are not to be trifled with either, and this involves billions of dollars in interests, so they naturally won't sit idly by.

After all, with so many movies released in the same period, the screen time is fixed; if you get more screenings, I get fewer.

The number of screenings depends on the strength of the pre-release publicity and promotion, all other things being equal. If you have a big cast but no pre-release publicity, the theaters will definitely not give you many screenings.

Right now, it's the peak season for the promotion and distribution of major films during the Spring Festival, but Chen Mo's prediction of 10 billion yuan has completely disrupted their previous promotion and distribution plans.

How could they just sit idly by and wait to die? If they let it continue, they would lose hundreds of millions in box office revenue.

Although theaters will definitely adjust the screening schedule based on attendance after the film's release, especially since all of them are blockbusters, they will definitely have to see the market feedback.

But there's another saying: the early bird catches the worm!

At this point, it's not a matter of giving face or not; it's a matter of fighting with bayonets!

The first to be affected is Wuershan from "Fengshen Part 2: War in Xiqi".

Although Chen Mo found the second part of Fengshen to be full of flaws, he clearly didn't think so.

Moreover, Chen Mo and he can be considered old enemies.

Back then, he longed to direct "Mojin: The Lost Legend" and did a lot of work, even humbling himself, but in the end, Chen Mo still cut off the opportunity.

He kept thinking about it and felt like someone had cut off his great opportunity. He remained silent for many years before starting the "Investiture of the Gods Trilogy" again. But he was definitely envious, jealous and hateful of Chen Mo!

Normally, he wouldn't dare do anything to Chen Mo, but this time is different. Several competitors have tacitly begun to prepare to attack Chen Mo and "Ne Zha".

So he volunteered to become the vanguard against Chen Mo!
He published a long article on Weibo titled "Movies Are Not a Numbers Game," directly naming Chen Mo:

"Some industry peers use astronomical figures like 'hundreds of billions' to hold the industry hostage, making audiences mistakenly believe that box office revenue is the only standard for measuring a film."

We spent five years building a realistic Shang and Zhou dynasty set and training actors in horsemanship and archery, all to convey Chinese culture, not to perform financial magic! Chinese films don't need hype, they only need to be grounded in reality!

The documentary clip of the crew's craftsmen carving bronze artifacts was then released, with the caption, "Box office receipts may expire, but good works can last for thousands of years."

Soon, under the operation of the "Anti-Chen Mo" alliance, it began to be collectively forwarded by directors in the industry.
#The Original Aspiration of Filmmakers#
#Wuershan Talks About the Spirit of Craftsmanship in Film#
The film suddenly appeared on the trending topics list, and fans of the Investiture of the Gods started flooding the comments with messages like, "Reject box office manipulation and support conscientious productions."

The film trended on social media, with critics beginning to criticize "Chen Mo-style marketing" for fostering a superficial and frivolous atmosphere in the industry.

Zhou Li, vice president of the China Film Critics Association, was the first to publish an article in Film Weekly entitled "Beware of the Industry Bubble Trap Behind '10 Billion Yuan Box Office'", in which he pointed out incisively:
Director Chen Mo's "10 billion prediction" is essentially a marketing gamble orchestrated by capital, forcibly hijacking the artistic value of the film through financial means. For an animated film to dare to proclaim a "10 billion box office" before even being released, without even mentioning its theme or content, is not a sign of confidence in the quality of the work, but rather a blatant capital game—using exaggerated figures to attract attention and force the market to buy in.

When 'box office expectations' become a more important marketing tool than the film itself, capital has brutally usurped the creative discourse, turning the film industry into chips in a casino.

Renowned film critic "Poison Tongue Movie" produced a special video overnight, interspersed with footage of the celebration banquet for "Ne Zha 1" reaching 50 billion yuan in box office revenue, and a comparison of Chen Mo's interview.
"Five years ago, the success of 'Ne Zha' relied on the narrative innovation of 'my fate is in my own hands, not in the heavens,' but now the sequel has degenerated into a marketing frenzy of 'I boast without substance.' While director Jiaozi's team was struggling with the special effects of Shen Gongbao's magic, the capital market was already using ARPU to predict Ne Zha's future—isn't this putting the cart before the horse?"

Film scholar Dai Hua publicly stated at an academic seminar:
"Some people keep talking about '10 billion yuan box office,' turning the art of filmmaking into a numbers gamble! At least the 'Fengshen' crew knew to build sets and polish the script, but what about Chen Mo? The movie wasn't even finished filming, and the 'box office metaverse' in the Excel spreadsheet had already been calculated to two decimal places!"

This isn't making a movie; it's clearly a financial scam—using PowerPoint presentations to paint a rosy picture and then exploiting the audience like韭菜 (a metaphor for easily exploited people)! When the entire industry starts competing to see who can inflate the biggest bubble, those who are truly dedicated to creating something real become a laughing stock.

After all, anyone can boast—hundreds of billions, hundreds of billions, trillions—but not just anyone can make a good movie!

It must be said that the anti-Chen Mo alliance is quite powerful.

Soon, the hashtag #AntiBoxOfficePUA# quickly gained traction on social media. A veteran producer posted screenshots of the financial reports of Enlight Media and Shengshi Pictures, the investors in "Ne Zha 2," for the past three years, along with the following text:
"The production cost of 'Ne Zha 2' was 500 million yuan, and the marketing budget was 200 million yuan. Based on the box office of 10 billion yuan, the return on investment is as high as 1400% - is this making a movie or running a pyramid scheme?"

And this is just the beginning.

Soon, Old Monster Xu also began to exert his strength.

Tsui Hark's "The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Great Hero" production team quickly followed suit, holding a high-profile technical press conference where they played a comparison video of unedited live-action fight scenes and 4K 120fps retouched footage.

In the video, the scene where Guo Jing, played by Xiao Zhan, shoots an eagle with his bow on the grassland is broken down frame by frame.

"It took 0.3 seconds from drawing the bow to releasing the arrow. We had to do 47 takes to capture the perfect arc of the arrow's fletching."

The martial arts director pointed to the frozen image on the screen and emphasized: "These days, some animated films dare to boast about billions just because they use computer-generated flame effects? Every drop of sweat in a martial arts film has to be real, real fighting!"

The official Weibo account of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" also posted a sarcastic comment:
"Some PPT animation directors (pictured is a poster of 'Ne Zha 2' watermarked with '10 Billion Fantasy') should learn to draw human muscle structure before dreaming! When Tsui Hark was making 'New Dragon Gate Inn' thirty years ago, some of them were still playing in the mud! #WuxiaNeedsFoam#"

Under this topic, 68-year-old martial arts star Zhao Wenzhuo personally recorded a video:

"Back when I was filming 'Once Upon a Time in China,' Jet Li broke three of my ribs. Now young people think box office success is just a matter of typing on a keyboard?"

The scene cuts to a classic fight scene from his 1993 film "Fong Sai-yuk," with the caption, "Look at what real kung fu, punches landing with real force, looks like!"

That night, Weibo's trending topics were flooded with posts:

#Legend of the Condor Heroes 120fps Face-Slapping Animation Effects# (Explosive)

#Zhao Wenzhuo angrily denounces box office bubble# (Trending)

#Xu Ke says martial arts films don't need PowerPoint presentations# (New)

Soon after, film critics followed up with comments: "While the 'Legend of the Condor Heroes' team was filming on location in the desert for three months, 'Ne Zha 2' was using the '10 billion yuan' gimmick to lure investors into buying stocks—this is a complete 'lower dimension' attack!"

The accompanying image shows Xu Ke adjusting a camera on set on the left, and a screenshot of a financial news report on the right, with the headline "Enlight Media's Market Value Soars by Nearly 5 Billion in Three Days".

Although Chen Mo and Wanda have a good relationship, after all, competitors are rivals, and the "10 billion prediction" was indeed too exaggerated in its influence.

So Chen Sicheng began to take action.

In an exclusive interview, he said, "I never predict box office results, but the first three 'Detective Chinatown' films have grossed over 10 billion yuan worldwide—note that this is a real achievement, not a PowerPoint presentation prediction."

Subsequently, the joint theater chain released data: "Ne Zha 2 was the number one trending topic, but Detective Chinatown 4 had 12% more pre-sale box office revenue - audiences voted most honestly with their wallets."

In an instant, Chen Mo's "10 billion prediction" made him seem like a villain that everyone wanted to kill!

Now, both Lao Wang from Enlight Media and director Jiaozi were getting restless.

While competition among films released in the same period is inevitable, they never thought they could single-handedly take on all the films released in the same period!

Not to mention the current uproar in public opinion, which has almost labeled "Ne Zha" as a villain.

(End of this chapter)