Chinese blockbuster Ne Zha 2, the highest-grossing animation movie of all time, is still driving strong sales of derivative products after its screening in January, and is expected to leverage a GDP increment of 200 billion yuan ($27.86 billion), its investor said.

Wang Changtian, chairman of Beijing Enlight Media Co, the major investor of the Ne Zha franchise, made the remarks at the opening forum of the 27th Shanghai International Film Festival on Sunday.

He said besides box office revenues of Ne Zha 2, a single product category of its derivatives could generate tens of billions of yuan in sales, and the developers, producers, and sellers of its derivative products have received significant market dividends.

In the long term, sales of derivatives could reach hundreds of billions of yuan, he estimated.

The company said the development of the derivative products of Ne Zha 2 was advanced to the early stage of film development, and a rich variety of derivatives such as badges, cards, figurines and plush toys have been launched. When the film was officially released, its entire contracted derivative brands portfolio was unveiled.

The blind boxes of domestic toy maker Pop Mart have become one of the hottest derivatives of Ne Zha 2. Its total sales volumes on e-commerce platforms such as Tmall and social media platforms like Douyin and RedNote have exceeded 250,000 units.

The huge popularity of Ne Zha 2 has boosted the earnings of Beijing Enlight Media.

During the first quarter of this year, the company achieved a sales revenue of 2.98 billion yuan, up 177.87 percent year-on-year. Its net profit came in at 2.02 billion yuan, surging 374.79 percent year-on-year, according to its earnings report.

The film has been screened in multiple countries, including more than 30 European nations.

Wang said Beijing Enlight Media expects the overseas box office revenues of Ne Zha 2 to exceed $100 million.

This is already the highest for Chinese mainland films in the past 20 years.

"Chinese films need to enhance the core competitiveness of their distribution chains, while actively cultivating overseas audiences' interest and habits in watching Chinese-language films," said Li Wei, professor of economics at the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business.

"The Chinese film industry needs to produce a large number of high-quality films like the Ne Zha series that are comparable to international standards in order to form economies of scale in overseas markets," Li said.

zhuwenqian@chinadaily.com.cn