BEIJING: Chinese fans of the animated blockbuster “Ne Zha 2” flocked to cinemas in Beijing on Sunday, eagerly snapping selfies and queuing for movie posters and merchandise.
The animated film, now China’s highest-grossing movie of all time, was released overseas last week, sparking hopes among locals that it would gain the same acclaim abroad.
The movie has broken multiple box office records and is the first to earn more than $1 billion in a single market — overtaking “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” which made $936 million in the United States in 2015.
“Ne Zha 2” hit the big screen in Australia and New Zealand on Thursday, one day ahead of its release in the United States and Canada.
At a cinema in Sanlitun, one of Beijing’s most popular commercial districts, fan Zhou Jingwen said she was about to see the film for the third time.
“I think it’s different from traditional American animated films,” the 29-year-old said as quoted by AFP, adding that she felt it would be well-received abroad and was “rich with Chinese mythological background”.
A sequel five years in the making, the fantasy-comedy, loosely based on the 16th-century novel “Investiture of the Gods”, tells the tale of a rebellious young deity Ne Zha who uses his powers to battle formidable foes after his village is destroyed.
Released domestically on January 29 to coincide with the Lunar New Year holiday, a prime movie-going time in China, the movie has reignited the country’s film industry after 2024 saw box office receipts slump 23 percent compared to a year earlier.
The original “Ne Zha” became China’s highest-grossing animated film after it was released in 2019.
According to fans, moviegoers abroad could gain a better understanding of Chinese culture after seeing the costumes and scenery portrayed in the new film.
In the week leading up to February 6, online searches for Ne Zha-related destinations such as Yibin and Jiangyou in Sichuan surged, with Yibin experiencing a 225 percent increase and Jiangyou seeing a 453 percent rise, data from China-based travel platform Fliggy showed.
The success of Ne Zha 2 has also driven a surge in tourism in Xixia county, Central China’s Henan Province, with attractions like the Ne Zha ancestral temple and Chentang Pass historical site, Ne Zha’s home in the mythological story, gaining popularity, Zhang Kai, deputy director of the Xixia cultural tourism development service centre, told the Global Times on Sunday.
The number of visitors at major attractions across the county has risen year-on-year, with hotel bookings nearly doubling since the release of the movie.
Overall, the county has seen an 18-percent increase in visitor arrivals and a 13.2-percent rise in total revenue, fuelling growth in related sectors such as dining and accommodation, Zhang said.
Leveraging films’ popularity to drive tourism is a new trend, dependent on production quality, audience reception and box office success.
