Entertainment: You're asked to make a graduation project, but you're asked to film Ultrama

Chapter 242 The Current State of the Business Empire, Film Project

The headquarters building of Chasing Light Film Studio in Jinghai City.

Gu Nan pushed open the office door, and sunlight streamed through the glass, casting a warm glow on the solid wood desk.

A thick stack of quarterly financial reports was spread out on the table.

He turned a couple of pages, and a smile unconsciously crept onto his lips.

The data looks almost too good to be true.

But this beauty didn't fall from the sky.

Traditional film and television companies actually have a very narrow path – producing dramas, selling broadcasting rights, and waiting for payment from platforms.

It sounds simple, but there are so many pitfalls that they could bury you alive: platforms pressure you to lower prices, there are long payback periods, and a single project can determine your fate; a slight misstep can lead to total loss.

Not to mention, you also have to consider the scheduling of TV stations and cinemas. If they don't schedule it for you, no matter how well you make it, it's all for nothing.

Light Chaser Animation never took this path from the beginning.

What Gu Nan needs to do is create a closed loop.

What is a closed loop?

I create my own IPs, broadcast them myself, sell my own merchandise, make my own games, and organize my own offline exhibitions—money moves from my left pocket to my right pocket, but each time it goes around, I make a lot more.

This model is known in the industry as "full industry chain development".

It sounds impressive, but very few can actually be made.

Because each link requires investment of money, manpower, and time, if any link fails, the entire chain breaks down.

Light Chaser Animation Studios, however, welded this chain shut in less than three years.

Let's first look at the core profit pool – derivatives.

This is the real money-printing machine of the Ultraman IP.

In another world, Tsuburaya Productions relied on it for half a century, and Bandai became a giant in the toy industry because of it.

Now, Gu Nan has also partnered with Bandai, and the two companies have a deep collaboration with an extremely precise product line.

Just like the children's line, they use DX transformation devices, soft rubber monsters, and flashing dolls to attract customers.

If you walk into any Toys "R" Us store, the most prominent spot will definitely be the Chase Light Pictures shelf.

The kids are captivated by the giant figure in the tokusatsu show, and while their parents grumble when they pay, they always come back for more.

Adult customers, on the other hand, use the True Bone Carving SHF series.

This series is for those adults who think, "I'm too old to buy toys."

High-precision reproduction, highly movable, alloy parts—each piece is a work of art.

Even more outrageous, this thing has become an investment product. Originally priced at four or five hundred, it can fetch two or three times its original price on the secondary market after it becomes discontinued. Fans curse "those who sell it deserve a terrible death" while secretly bidding up prices to buy it.

Gaia just released its first quarter report, and its physical merchandise sales across all channels exceeded 1.5 billion yuan.

1.5 billion.

What does that mean?

Many A-share listed film and television companies in China only have this much revenue for the entire year.

Light Chaser Animation achieved this in just three months by selling toys.

This has greatly shocked countless people in the domestic cultural and entertainment industry!

What they once ignored or even looked down upon has now become a colossal entity that they can't even bear to inhale.

……

Then there's the gaming business.

The buy-to-play game "Ultraman Fighting Evolution" costs 199 yuan.

In an era where free-to-play mobile games with in-app purchases are rampant, the pricing of "Ultraman Fighting Evolution" seems a bit "retro".

But Light Chaser Animation is just that tough: no gacha mechanics, no pay-to-win elements, no stamina system, one-time payment to buy out all content.

Global cumulative sales have exceeded 20 million units.

To put it simply, 20 million x 199 yuan is approximately 4 billion yuan. Of course, this is the cash flow, and we need to deduct platform revenue sharing, distribution costs, and R&D expenses.

Even if we fold it in half, it's still an astronomical figure.

With each weekly update of Ultraman Gaia, free DLC will be released in the game to unlock new monsters that have just appeared in the series.

What does this mean?

After watching Gaia beat up the new monster in the show on Thursday, you can open the game on Friday and control that monster to beat up Gaia yourself.

The drama series' popularity drives the game's daily active users, and the game's active players generate discussions on social media, which in turn boosts the drama series' viewership, ultimately driving sales of the game itself.

A perfect closed loop.

Moreover, this tactic has a hidden benefit: players will always feel that "this game was totally worth the money".

Other games release DLCs and practically sell them in eight separate parts, but Light Chaser Animation does the opposite, giving away new content for free every week.

The positive word-of-mouth effect from such conscientious actions is far more effective than spending tens of millions on GG.

In Gu Nan's memory, there was once a game called The Witcher 3 that won over players' reputation with its free DLC and conscientious operation, eventually selling over 5000 million copies.

The Light Chaser Animation model can be considered the ultimate version of "theater-game synergy".

The influence of Light Chaser Animation has long transcended the boundaries of entertainment.

The spirit of the "new era" explored in "Dyna" directly led to a surge in the application rate for aerospace-related core engineering majors in the 2027 National College Entrance Examination.

This is not a joke; it's real data from the Education Examinations Authority.

Many high school students, inspired by Shin Asuka's growth, resolved to "go see the universe."

With the popularity of the TV series "Gaia," the Jinghai City Fire Brigade has proactively approached them seeking cooperation.

Chasing Light Pictures even helped produce a short film for fire safety awareness.

A tokusatsu drama can inspire viewers to apply for aerospace engineering majors and prompt fire departments to jointly endorse it—this is no longer a simple "cultural product," but a cultural symbol with extremely high positive social value.

……

Gu Nan shifted his gaze from the financial report to the documents beside him.

It was a project proposal with a line of bold black text printed on the cover: "Ultraman Gaia: The Great Time-Space Battle" theatrical film project proposal.

He reached out and pulled the document over, flipped through it casually, and then closed it again.

"It's still a long way off," he thought to himself.

Many viewers think that making a movie is simply "the director yells 'action,' the actors start acting, and the movie is released after filming is finished."

But in reality, the process of a film going from concept to release is more complicated than you can imagine.

According to industry standard procedures, the complete life cycle of a theatrical film can be roughly divided into five stages: project development and preparation, pre-production, filming and production, post-production, and market distribution.

The project development phase alone includes a series of steps such as creative planning, scriptwriting, synopsis writing, proposal pre-sales, and budget preparation.

For a high-budget tokusatsu film, this process will only take longer.

Taking top domestic animated films as an example, the average cycle from the start of production to release is as long as three years.

The proposal in front of Gu Nan was still in its most primitive state.

A concept, a few pages, and a string of budget figures that haven't been filled in yet.

But he knew in his heart that the window of opportunity left for him was not long.

He picked up the phone on the table and dialed the number of Chen Bo, the current production director.

"Old Chen, come here for a moment."

Three minutes later, the office door was pushed open.

Chen Bo looked at the blue document in front of Gu Nan and a knowing expression appeared on his face.

"Thinking about your movie again?"

"It's not about pondering," Gu Nan denied.

"It's starting up."

Chen Bo sat down on the sofa opposite him, his expression turning serious: "Are you serious?"

"It's for real."

Gu Nan's tone left no room for negotiation: "We'll release Gaia around episode 25, which will be the perfect timeframe. It'll be the summer season; we'll grab as many screen time as we can."

"Summer movie season..." Chen Bo frowned.

Are you sure?

This is not a question without reason.

In the Chinese film market, the choice of release date almost determines half of the box office success.

In recent years, the box office performance of films has become increasingly polarized, with high-quality films concentrated in the two prime time slots of the Spring Festival and the summer vacation.

The summer movie season has a large audience base and a high demand for movies among students, making it theoretically the best choice for a tokusatsu film targeting young viewers.

But the problem is that the summer movie season is also a battleground for top-tier talent.

The national box office for the summer of 2025 reached 119.66 billion yuan, but many critically acclaimed films still failed to break through the 30 billion yuan box office ceiling, and the trend of market concentration among top players was extremely obvious.

For a domestically produced tokusatsu film to carve out a niche in such fierce competition, relying solely on the popularity of its intellectual property is a risky proposition.

"Of course I'm not sure."

Gu Nan bluntly stated, "But if we don't release it in theaters, we'll forever be stuck behind Bilibili's six-yuan paywall. Four hundred million yuan in on-demand box office revenue sounds good, but the ceiling is fixed there."

Chen Bo fell silent.

The fact that Light Chaser Animation's first feature film chose to premiere on Bilibili's paid on-demand streaming platform, and its achievement of accumulating over 400 million yuan in box office revenue in a single month, is truly an industry legend.

But that was achieved under the premise of "avoiding theatrical release".

By bypassing the distribution channels, you avoid the risks, but you also give up a larger market potential.

How much can a truly domestically produced theatrical special effects blockbuster actually sell?

no one knows.

Because no one has ever done it before.

Have you considered the costs?

Chen Bo started counting on his fingers, "Live-action film, tokusatsu genre, lots of CG effects, we also need to hire professional actors, build sets, and make physical effects props..."

"I've done a preliminary budget estimate."

Gu Nan opened the project proposal, turned to the budget page, and pushed it to Chen Bo.

The production cost budget sheet was filled with densely packed details across an entire page:

Finally, looking at the numbers, the total is approximately 2 million.

The marketing budget is listed separately, including trailer production, poster materials, offline roadshows, ticket subsidies, and screening fees.

Chen Bo glanced at it, his lips twitching slightly: "Nearly 250 million... You really dare."

There's an open secret in the film industry: most high-budget films struggle to break even.

Take the martial arts film "The Swordsman" as an example. The production cost was as high as 700 million yuan, and the publicity and distribution costs were another 50 to 60 million yuan. It was only possible to break even if the box office exceeded 2 billion yuan. In the end, the production company still lost about 300 million yuan after the revenue sharing.

Although the investment in this feature film by Light Chaser Animation is only one-third that of "The Swordsman," the box office pressure is still considerable.

According to industry practice, the final revenue share for the film company is about one-third of the box office revenue... This means that in order to recoup the investment of 250 million yuan, the box office revenue must reach at least 800 million yuan.

Meeting this requirement in the film industry is no small challenge.

For a tokusatsu film, this is a number that no one has ever reached before.

Even in the original world, no tokusatsu film could achieve this.

The closest one is 2023's "Godzilla 1.0", which grossed $1.04 million worldwide and is considered the pinnacle of Japanese tokusatsu.

But as for the height of the chasing lights...

In the domestic special effects field, it is indeed the undisputed pinnacle.

They're just venturing into theatrical releases.

It's hard to give a proper evaluation.

Chen Bo's confidence was naturally not that high.

The two looked at each other but said nothing more.

Gu Nan sat back down in his chair and picked up the proposal again.

But if he's going to do it, he'll do it to the extreme in this industry!