Ne Zha breaks Zootopia's record in nation

The unexpected box office success of Chinese animated film Ne Zha turned into a significant money spinner for its producers.

Last Friday, it overtook Zootopia's box office receipts of 1.53 billion yuan ($217.7 million) in 2016 and became the highest ever grossing animation film in China.

The movie continued to dominate the Chinese mainland box office on Monday, its 11th day of screening. Up till Monday, its total box office receipt stood at 2.4 billion yuan. Online ticketing platform Maoyan Entertainment predicts the film will finish its run with about 4.4 billion yuan.

A report by financial analysis website Eastmoney predicts the film is likely to help Enlight Media Ltd, where the film got most of its funding, to gross over 600 million yuan.

Enlight Media owns two major producers of Ne Zha, Beijing Enlight Pictures Co Ltd and Coloroom Pictures.

The share price of Enlight Media in Shenzhen settled at 9.11 yuan on Friday, up 26 percent from 7.23 yuan on July 12, the day before the film's sneak preview. The share price of the company, however, ended lower at 8.67 yuan on Monday.

Chen Shaofeng, a professor in culture and entertainment of Peking University, said Enlight Media's gross on Ne Zha is likely to encourage more investors to step into China's animation industry.

"Lack of sufficient financing has always been a problem for domestic animation film studios. Animation production is a time-consuming process, usually three to five years, and that makes many investors lose their patience because many Chinese investors are still hoping for quick investment returns," Chen said.

Xinhua contributed to the story.