Chapter 413 - 408: Four-wheel Brothers and Pokemon

Chapter 413: Chapter 408: Four-wheel Brothers and Pokemon

With a massive influx of box office revenue, Qitian Company was presented with an even greater opportunity for growth.

Dili Dili doubled in size to better serve its ever-growing user base.

Qitian Animation, meanwhile, brought two new studios on board and announced the launch of two new animated projects: *Four-wheel Brothers* and *Pokemon*.

The former was poised to monopolize the children’s toy race car market. The latter was the world’s number one animated IP, its value so absurdly high that either one could bring the company a massive fortune in a short amount of time.

To this day, Jiang Xia could still recall the obsession that had once gripped him—the one for 4WD cars. He had spent his entire childhood allowance on them.

It started with pre-built cars that cost just a few yuan, then moved on to assembly kits ranging from ten to several tens of yuan, and eventually even individual parts. His childhood savings were completely drained.

As for *Pokemon*, the popularity of that "little yellow mouse" went without saying. Spanning games, anime, manga, board games, and toys, the franchise had generated thousands of officially licensed products and derivative works, accumulating over 90 billion dollars in profit.

After all, who could possibly say no to a cute little Pikachu?

Meanwhile, preparations for the 2012 *Cat and Mouse* Year of the Dragon special movie had also begun.

In the past, Jiang Xia would never have dared to launch so many animated projects simultaneously. But times had changed. With Qitian Company’s current financial power, wasn’t recruiting two studios packed with top talent a piece of cake?

The style and plot for *Slam Dunk* had been finalized over the past year. As a result, with the main storyline and scripts set in stone, production of subsequent episodes could be handed off to others, leaving him to simply oversee the entire workflow.

This freed Jiang Xia up to pour his energy into *Four-wheel Brothers* and *Pokemon*. He especially needed to personally manage the character designs, animation scripts, and storyboards for these new projects.

If someone else were to direct them, the final products might share the names of the originals, but the stories would be completely different.

It took Jiang Xia nearly a full month to complete the initial proposals for *Pokemon* and *Four-wheel Brothers*. He brought together the directors, scriptwriters, and episode directors to finalize the overall story structure, the world-building, and the core elements.

Once that was done, they could begin initial production. With Jiang Xia overseeing quality control for the entire process, there was no risk of the art style straying from his vision.

◇

「Labor Day.」

The young couple, who hadn’t been home in over a year, finally found the time for a visit. Both sets of parents were overjoyed. They gathered together and cooked a huge feast, filling the table with all of Jiang Xia and Lin Yanwan’s favorite dishes.

"You’ve really done it, kid," his father-in-law said, sharing a drink with his son-in-law at the dinner table. He couldn’t help but ask, "The *Cat and Mouse* movie grossed nearly 1.8 billion. How much of that will your company get to keep?"

During the movie’s theatrical run, Gaoyuan Toys had also seized the opportunity to launch related merchandise, getting a hefty piece of the pie.

"Around forty percent. So, six or seven hundred million," Jiang Xia said with a smile.

Compared to the incredibly low production cost, Qitian Animation had certainly made a fortune from this movie. More importantly, it had paved their way onto the big screen, making the release of future animated films a logical next step.

Hearing this figure, Lin Gaoyuan was secretly stunned. ’Six or seven hundred million in profit...’ No wonder everyone said the film industry was lucrative. The return on investment was just too high. His own toy factory, running at full capacity, only managed to generate a little over a hundred million in revenue after a whole year of back-breaking work.

Of course, that was only if the movie was at least a minor hit. Otherwise, you might not even recoup your costs and end up losing everything.

"So what about this year’s zodiac movie? Are you still doing one?"

"We are," Jiang Xia confirmed with a nod. "The project has already been greenlit. We’re still aiming for a release during next year’s Spring Festival slot."

"So the new movie will probably aim for two billion at the box office, right?"

"That’ll be tough..."

Jiang Xia shook his head. "The domestic film market just isn’t that big yet. *The Lucky Rabbit* had the perfect combination of timing, location, and popular support."

"There were no other good movies competing for showtimes during the Spring Festival, our marketing campaign was massive, and there was even a foreign film looming over everything, which paradoxically led to the explosive box office."

"Building on the success of the previous film, it’ll be a great achievement if the new zodiac movie can just maintain a one-billion box office."

"You have to remember, the box office champion that year, *Lost in Thailand*, only made 1.2 billion."

"For blockbuster movies grossing over a billion to become common, we’ll probably have to wait until after 2015, when major capital starts flooding into the market."

"Well, either way, keep up the good work. What if it becomes another Spring Festival sensation? You have no idea how much Xiao Man loves it. She went to the theater four or five times just to see it."

"That’s right, Brother-in-law! Xiao Man loves that Tuji the most! He’s so cute and clever, and he and Jerry really gave Tom a hard time," Xiao Man, sitting next to him, chimed in, nodding enthusiastically.

Jiang Xia chuckled and patted his sister-in-law’s head. "Ah, I see. So the reason the box office was so high was thanks to all your hard work, Xiao Man. You’ll have to go see next year’s movie a few times, too."

"Okay!~"

Hearing her make such a solemn, grown-up promise, the whole family burst into happy laughter.

"Jiang Xia, besides the *Cat and Mouse* movie, what other big plans do you have for this year? Give me a heads-up so I can prepare in advance," his father-in-law asked.

’The excellence of his son-in-law was plain for all to see. Since starting his company, Jiang Xia had grown at an astonishing rate, and every single one of his ventures had yielded massive returns.’

’It was thanks to this foresight that his own toy factory had grown to its current scale.’

"Dad, I was just about to bring that up," Jiang Xia said, biting into a piece of rib meat so tender it was falling off the bone. "The second half of this year will be the most important one yet for your toy factory. If you seize the opportunity, you could expand the factory’s operations several times over."

"Oh? How so?" Lin Gaoyuan’s eyes lit up, and he immediately perked up.

Jiang Xia put down his chopsticks and took out his phone. He pulled up a few hand-drawn design sketches of 4WD race cars from his photo album and passed the phone over.

"What’s this? A toy car?"

"They’re toy race cars. Their design is similar to an F1 car, and they have a motor, battery, and drive shaft. They come in both two-wheel and four-wheel drive versions. My new animated series is about racing, and if all goes according to plan, 4WD race cars will dominate more than half of the entire toy market for the next two years."

Jiang Xia spoke with utter conviction. He believed that once *Four-wheel Brothers* officially aired, a racing craze would sweep the nation for a long time. In his past life, it had been in a league of its own. When kids got together to play, if you didn’t have a race car in your hands, how could you even show your face?

Hearing the seriousness in his son-in-law’s voice, Lin Gaoyuan didn’t doubt his judgment in the slightest. With Qitian Animation’s current reputation, any series they produced was guaranteed to draw massive attention. Starting a trend would be child’s play.

"So, you’re saying I should hurry up and get the production lines ready for these race cars?"