Future Pet Shop

"Bin, open up!" Shen Yibin heard the doorbell before the webpage could even load. Director Kong was shouting from outside, his voice filled with irrepressible excitement.

"Coming, coming!" Shen Yibin had no choice but to put down his phone and get the door. He led Director Kong to a seat in the living room. 'Since he's here, I don't need to refresh the page anymore. I can just ask him directly,' he thought. "Director Kong, I saw on TV that our box office broke a record? What's the total now?"

"Aiya, I've been talking all day. How about you get me some wine to wet my whistle?" Once inside, Director Kong seemed to calm down. "Didn't you say you brought several bottles when you got off the plane?"

'So that's why you came all the way here! It was all for my Monkey Wine,' Shen Yibin thought. He pointed a finger at Director Kong but ultimately said nothing. He went to the liquor cabinet, took out a bottle of Monkey Wine, placed three glasses on the coffee table, and filled them. "Well, let this be a celebration for your success!"

Director Kong quickly picked up his glass, closed his eyes, and savored the fragrant, fruity wine. Only after finishing it did he open his eyes and say with reluctance, "This really is fine wine. It's just a shame the production is so low."

"Even the best wine gets boring if you drink it every day. Enjoying it every now and then is the way to go." Shen Yibin placed the bottle next to himself and grinned at Director Kong, his expression clearly saying, 'If you don't tell me the box office numbers, you're not getting another drop.'

"As of now, exactly twenty-four hours have passed. The first-day domestic box office has accumulated 632.15 million, breaking the domestic single-day box office record of 487.5 million set by *Fast & Furious 8* on April 15, 2017. As for the record for a domestic film, don't even get me started. We're at nearly double the highest single-day box office of *Wolf Warriors 2*." Director Kong rattled off the string of numbers without even glancing at his phone.

"Whoa, the domestic film market is really blowing up!" Shen Yibin couldn't help but exclaim. He had done some research beforehand and found that the top five spots on the domestic single-day box office chart were all set this year. *Fast & Furious 8* was number one, followed by *Wolf Warriors 2* and *Journey to the West: Demon Suppression*. Further down the list, *Wolf Warriors 2* also held the seventh spot and *Transformers: The Last Knight* was ninth. All of them had surpassed 300 million RMB. This showed just how rapidly the domestic film market was growing. *Panda Hero*'s success was partly due to the movie being genuinely good with excellent promotion, but it also had the burgeoning domestic market to thank.

"According to the latest exchange rate, 632.15 million RMB is equivalent to 93.97 million US dollars. Add to that the 87.85 million US dollars from the first day's box office in the United States. Although we didn't break the North American box office record of 130 million set by *Star Wars: The Force Awakens*, the sum of these two has already reached 185.82 million US dollars. Even excluding the box office from the rest of the world, we've already broken the global single-day total box office record. Our movie has basically exploded across the globe!" Director Kong spouted a series of jaw-dropping figures.

"The current exchange rate is 6.73, right? By that calculation, doesn't 185.82 million US dollars equal 1.25 billion RMB? Are you saying we made a total of 1.25 billion in just one day?" Shen Yibin did a quick calculation and was completely floored by the number. 'Holy shit, even robbing the vaults of the Federal Reserve System wouldn't be this fast, would it?'

"And that's not all. The box office in Xiangjiang has already surpassed thirty million." Xiangjiang was Director Kong's home turf, so breaking the single-day box office record there was to be expected. But the next figures took Shen Yibin by surprise. "The single-day box office on Treasure Island also exceeded thirty million, the total box office in Japan is over 700 million yen, and the first-day attendance in South Korea topped 600,000 people. Oh, right, South Korea likes to track admissions instead of total box office..."

"The European market is just as hot. Because you took Hah'Er on a tour of Europe last time, the pre-sales for *Panda Hero* went exceptionally well. Nearly every theater showing the movie was sold out. By the way, Princess Sylvie also showed off her movie ticket on social media, and Princess Kate said she and Prince William would be taking Prince George to see the film. That certainly helped us attract a lot of fans." Although the European market wasn't as large as China's or North America's, its developed economy meant that the combined box office from all the countries was still a figure not to be underestimated.

"So... our movie is a hit?" Shen Yibin was getting dizzy from the endless stream of numbers. 'When did I start talking about projects worth hundreds of millions or even billions?'

"If this isn't a hit, then I don't know what is!" Director Kong didn't know what to say. He simply turned his head away. 'I have nothing more to say to a layman like you.'

"Hey, do you have any idea? Before *Panda Hero* was released, the 20th movie on the all-time domestic box office chart, *Journey to the West: Demon Subduing*, had a total box office of just 1.24572 billion. We surpassed that figure in a single day! And now, with every passing hour of screenings, our ranking climbs several spots. I estimate that in three days at most, *Panda Hero*'s global box office will definitely surpass *Wolf Warriors 2*!" Director Kong couldn't hold back and turned to enlighten Shen Yibin further. He didn't stop to consider whether it was appropriate to compare a global total with a domestic one, but it didn't seem to matter. Most of the previous blockbuster Chinese films earned the vast majority of their box office domestically; they never had this kind of success abroad.

"Director Kong, in that case, what do you think our movie's final global box office will be?" Shen Yibin had finally recovered a little from his daze and asked eagerly.

"Hmph, my goal is the top ten all-time global box office! The current number ten is *Beauty and the Beast* with 1.2597 billion US dollars. Surpassing that is a sure thing." Director Kong had already set his sights on *Avatar*'s 2.7823 billion US dollars, but he kept that thought to himself.

2.7823 billion US dollars. Converted to RMB, that was 18.7 billion. Forget achieving it, the number alone was terrifying to hear! For now, Director Kong only dared to think about it occasionally; he would never say it out loud. But seeing how things were going, that figure no longer seemed impossible.

"That's so much money!" Shen Yibin fell into another daze. His mind was now fixated on one thing: Hah'Er had signed a profit-sharing contract. 'Just how much money is Hah'Er going to make from this?'