Chapter 458 - 433: The Slam Dunk Finale

Chapter 458: Chapter 433: The Slam Dunk Finale

Spring Festival, the first day of the new year.

Thanks to a massive promotional campaign by Qitian Company, the *Cat and Mouse* New Year’s movie once again had a strong opening. Despite advance screenings starting a week early, it still brutally raked in 81 million on its first day, leaving all other Spring Festival films in the dust.

Evidently, word-of-mouth for the *Cat and Mouse: Year of the Dragon* movie had continued to build during the advance screenings. The flood of positive reviews attracted an even larger audience.

This figure already surpassed the opening day box office of last year’s *Year of the Rabbit’s Great Fortune*. After all, times were changing, the market economy was growing, and there were more theaters screening it than last year. Achieving this result was, frankly, not surprising.

Right now, no one was happier than Wang Ming. The first day’s box office was enough to prove his directorial ability. The final total surpassing one billion was practically a sure thing. As for whether it could break the record set by *Year of the Rabbit’s Great Fortune*, that would depend on if it could maintain its momentum.

In second place was director Xu Zheng’s *Lost in Thailand*. In its previous life, this film was the 2012 domestic box office champion, but now it was being suppressed by an animated feature aimed at all ages.

However, perhaps because Qitian Animation had already expanded the domestic film market ahead of schedule, *Lost in Thailand*’s opening day box office far exceeded that of its previous life, surpassing 50 million.

The entire film industry sent their congratulations. Dili Dili went even further, plastering the promotional poster for the *Year of the Dragon* movie on its homepage. The app was also updated with a new splash screen that linked directly to the online ticketing system for theaters, significantly boosting box office growth.

If users purchased tickets through the D Station channel, they even received a discount. Sometimes, saving just a yuan or two was enough to make a user switch platforms.

This series of moves not only significantly increased the user base but also indirectly boosted D Station’s revenue—truly killing two birds with one stone.

On the third day of the new year, the box office broke 400 million.

On the sixth day, it broke 500 million.

By the fifteenth day, the Lantern Festival, the box office had already crossed the one billion mark. This was two days faster than last year, though that was of course due to including the advance screening box office. So, all in all, the performance of the two movies was currently neck and neck.

At this juncture, Qitian Animation officially released a poster. Last year’s rabbit was congratulating this year’s baby dragon. There were a total of eighteen steps, each representing 100 million in box office, with the two characters climbing higher together, hand in hand.

But now, more than half of its theatrical run was over. Although its daily screen share was still high, the attendance rate had dropped significantly. New box office earnings were hovering between 15 and 20 million per day.

As time went on, the attendance rate would naturally continue to fall. Furthermore, since *Avatar*’s record had already been broken by *Year of the Rabbit’s Great Fortune*, they could no longer play the patriotism card.

If this trend continued, the final box office prediction for the *Year of the Dragon* movie was that it would finish at around 1.3 billion.

The final result wasn’t far from the prediction. On February 29, 2012, the *Year of the Dragon* movie ended its theatrical run. Including the advance screenings, it had been in theaters for a total of 40 days, ultimately achieving an outstanding box office of 1.51 billion.

Although it failed to break the record set by *Year of the Rabbit’s Great Fortune*, it was still the second-highest-grossing domestic film in history and could be considered an incredibly successful commercial film for the Spring Festival season.

After deducting the shares for various parties and taxes, Qitian Animation, as the producer, naturally made a fortune.

The IP value of *Cat and Mouse* reached a new level, driving sales of new merchandise, which also represented an extremely high profit.

Jiang Xia was true to his word. He gave Wang Ming a 1% cut of the *Year of the Dragon* movie’s final box office, which came out to a smooth 15 million.

"Not bad, not bad at all. Keep up the good work. We’ve only made two films in the Zodiac series so far; there are still ten more waiting for you, Director Wang. From now on, I’ll raise your commission by 1% each year. I have high hopes for you."

Jiang Xia patted Wang Ming’s shoulder with a grin. He remembered how Wang Ming had started by just helping him with key animation, and later began learning storyboarding from him. After more than two years, he had finally delivered a flawless performance.

Witnessing his good friend’s growth and seeing him become his right-hand man, Jiang Xia felt incredibly gratified.

Wang Ming was naturally happy to accept such a proposal. Never mind the generous commission; he genuinely loved the *Cat and Mouse* series. More importantly, he was still young. Even if he drew *Cat and Mouse* for another ten years, he would only be thirty.

’If Jiang Xia is the father of *Cat and Mouse*, then I’ll be its godfather and make it flourish!’

’I’ll spread the *Cat and Mouse* IP all over the world!’

On May 20th, after running continuously for two years and three months, *Slam Dunk* finally reached its conclusion. Tsinghua University, represented by Duanmu Huadao, successfully won the national championship. He and Rukawa Kaede, as the two most talented players, were selected for the national team.

However, Duanmu Huadao was injured in the final match of the national tournament and would need to fully recover before joining the national team’s training camp. Haruko took it upon herself to care for him day to day.

During one particularly close moment while she was caring for him, Duanmu, who was usually straightforward and bold, shyly turned his head away and stammered, "Haruko, I really love basketball. I really, really love it."

"I know~" Haruko didn’t look at him, still focused on massaging the solid muscles of his back, a gentle smile gracing her lips.

"I... I actually started liking basketball because you like basketball, Haruko." Duanmu’s face was red, and he watched the ever-gentle Haruko from the corner of his eye, the subtle expressions on his face revealing his nervousness.

Haruko’s hands froze for a moment before she quickly resumed her calm demeanor and said with a gentle smile, "I’ve always known you were a genius, Duanmu. Hurry up and get better. I’m waiting to see your amazing performance on the national team."

"You... you’ll always be by my side... right?" Duanmu swallowed hard, his fingers gripping the bedsheet.

Haruko suddenly stopped what she was doing. She let out a soft breath, looked down at Duanmu lying on the bed, and slowly raised a hand to tuck back a stray strand of her hair.

A brief silence fell over the clean and tidy hospital room. A gentle breeze swept through, causing the flowers on the table to sway lightly.

Haruko smiled faintly, her gaze fixed on the flowers, her eyes shimmering with a shy blush.

"Of course. I’ll always be..."

"Always."

The scene froze, and the ending theme began to play.

It wasn’t a cliché "I love you" ending. The expression was more artistic and reserved, filled with the longing and fantasy that defines young love at that age.

Duanmu and Haruko were brought together by basketball, and in the end, it was basketball that united them. Although it was a wholesome, happy ending, it still left people with a sense of wistful melancholy.

Perhaps, this was what they called youth.

And just after the finale of *Slam Dunk* aired, the topic shot to the top of Weibo’s trending list.

Many fans flooded the comments, begging for bonus Chapters, shipping the main couple, and demanding a movie be put into production soon.

Even more people shared their own romantic experiences, reminiscing about the "him" or "her" they once had a crush on at the basketball court.

On D Station’s bullet comments, the final scene was flooded with a solid wall of "XXX, I like you!"

As Qitian Animation’s first successfully completed series, *Slam Dunk* was incredibly significant. Not only did its merchandise become a massive hit in the sports and fitness market, but it also brought in a huge amount of popularity.

Jiang Xia held a grand celebration banquet at the company for the entire *Slam Dunk* project team. He even gave them a one-month paid vacation as a reward. After their break, a new animation project would be handed over to them.

On this day, Su Qing’s face was constantly wreathed in a happy smile. Completing the *Slam Dunk* anime was immensely significant for him. It was a major milestone in his life. Both his work experience and personal abilities had improved tremendously over the past two years.

Of course, compared to Wang Ming, Su Qing’s progress wasn’t as fast. After all, Old Wang was now a famous animation director with a 1.5 billion box office hit under his belt. In terms of achievements alone, very few in the entire animation industry could compare with him.

However, if he were asked to direct an anime like *Slam Dunk*, he might not necessarily do a better job than Su Qing. It could only be said that everyone has their own specialty; different types of works require vastly different skills.

"Old Su, you’ve worked hard these past two years," Jiang Xia said with a soft smile as he walked over.

Su Qing shook his head slightly. "It was nothing. Who in this company works harder than you?"

He wasn’t wrong. Jiang Xia not only had to manage the company but also serve as the general director for several anime series. To say nothing of other things, the entire final arc of *Slam Dunk* was produced under his guidance. The online reception was now extremely positive; on D Station, over a hundred thousand people had rated it, giving it a high score of 9.9.

Jiang Xia shrugged helplessly. "Well, I’m the boss, after all."

"Next month, will our production team really get a new project?" Su Qing asked.

Jiang Xia’s smile widened. He clapped him on the shoulder and said mysteriously, "And what if I told you that you would be the one to lead this new animation project?"

Su Qing’s eyes lit up. "What project? What genre? Don’t tell me it’s a *Slam Dunk* movie?"

He had spent a year on key animation and another year on directing/production, so he was extremely familiar with *Slam Dunk*. He was confident in his ability to direct a movie for the series.

Jiang Xia chuckled. "It’s a secret for now. Don’t worry about it. Just get some proper rest this month. Aren’t your final exams for the first half of the year coming up soon? Good luck, and don’t fail."

Hearing this, Su Qing couldn’t help but roll his eyes.

’What kind of answer is that?’

’Is he just trying to fob me off with that? Do I look like the type of person who would fail his exams?’

"You really can’t tell me?" he asked, not quite ready to give up.

"I can’t."

Jiang Xia pointed to his own head and said with a helpless smile, "To be honest, I have too many ideas in here. I haven’t decided which project to give you yet. But don’t worry, it will definitely be a high-quality project on par with *Slam Dunk*."

Su Qing: "..."

’Would it kill this guy to not show off? Other animation companies would be set for years if they managed to churn out one high-quality anime in two years. But for him, they’re a dime a dozen. His inspiration is always overflowing.’

"Fine, I’ll wait. But let’s agree on this first—you have to let me direct the new project!"

"Don’t worry. When have I ever lied to you?"

Su Qing thought for a moment. It seemed... that was actually true.

Watching him walk out of the company, Jiang Xia turned to look at the scenery outside the window. He rested his chin on the back of his hand, wondering whether he should have Su Qing continue to cultivate his skills in the sports genre and give him *The Prince of Tennis*, or if he should switch to a different genre.

He fell into deep thought.