‘Ne Zha 2’: China’s Box Office Demon Child is Now King of Merch
From toothpaste to toys, picture books to clothes, and even milk products and designer bags, the global success of China’s animated box-office smash “Ne Zha 2” has sparked a nationwide frenzy for merchandise.
Scrambling to meet the surge in demand, manufacturers, toy stores, and tourism departments across China are racing to capitalize on the movie’s popularity.
Released during the Spring Festival holiday, the film follows the adventures of the legendary Ne Zha, a boy born as the devil incarnate who challenges the rules of gods and demons. As of Tuesday, it had grossed 13.8 billion yuan ($1.9 billion) globally, surpassing “Inside Out” and “The Lion King” as the highest-grossing animated film ever.
Along with ticket sales, the movie has led to a frenzy for Ne Zha-branded products, with a wide range of businesses attempting to cash in with special features and collectibles, from picture books to smartphone accessories to beverages.
Toothpaste brand Mompick saw a 383% increase in sales within just seven days of releasing its co-branded offering, while dairy company Mengniu generated 5 million yuan in sales within 10 days of the movie’s release with three milk products featuring the character, according to e-commerce platform JD.com.
In particular, licensed merchandise such as figurines, collectible cards, clothing, and badges, have been flying off shelves. For example, “designer toy” company Pop Mart’s limited-edition “Ne Zha” blind boxes reportedly sold out within two days in store and generated more than 10 million yuan in sales on the Tmall online marketplace.
Most products are now available only via pre-order, with some waiting times stretching into the summer.
Those unwilling to wait are turning to the secondhand market, of course. Pop Mart’s blind boxes were originally priced at 69 yuan but are selling for up to 350 yuan on resale platforms like Xianyu.
Tourism departments are also taking every opportunity to promote their local connection with the legend of Ne Zha, who first appeared in the 16th-century novel “Investiture of the Gods,” or the recent hit movies.
From Feb. 1 to 7, searches on Alibaba’s online travel platform Fliggy for Jiangyou in the southwestern Sichuan province — one of several cities around the country that claims to be the birthplace of the boy demon — surged by 453%. Sichuan’s Luzhou, the hometown of “Ne Zha 2” director Yang Yu, has also been receiving widespread attention.
“This intellectual property (IP) has created an unexpected level of enthusiasm,” Wei Pengju, director of the Cultural Economics Research Institute at Central University of Finance and Economics, said in an interview with Sixth Tone. “I think it’s even taken the producers of ‘Ne Zha 2’ by surprise.”
Making good
The huge demand has certainly caught manufacturers off guard. Cheng Shuiqiao, engineering manager at Dongguan Henglitai Crafts, a toy factory in Dongguan, in the southern Guangdong province, told Sixth Tone: “We didn’t expect it to be this popular. We thought it would be a hit, but not to this extent. The success has been overwhelming and uncontrollable.”
The factory, which covers 7,000 square meters, serves international giants like Disney and Universal Studios as well as domestic companies including Bilibili, miHoYo, and Miniso. In early October, it received an order from a toy brand for 300,000 units of “Ne Zha” products and finished production just before the Chinese New Year. The products were sold out within three days of the movie’s release.
Five days into the Spring Festival holiday, the factory received an order for an additional 3 million units. “We were so excited. We didn’t expect such a large order right at the start of the year,” Cheng said.
Production of Ne Zha merchandise is now the factory’s priority, taking up about 50% of its total capacity. The plant makes up to 400,000 badges and 100,000 acrylic illustrations a day, with additional orders arriving almost every two days. “This rarely happens. Usually, customers only ever place one additional order,” Cheng said, adding that the factory has produced more merchandise for “Ne Zha 2” than for any other film IP.
Production is also in full swing at Wogongchang Culture Co., also in Dongguan. At the start of Spring Festival, it received an order worth 100 million yuan from Light Chaser Animation Studios, the Beijing studio behind “Ne Zha 2,” almost surpassing the company’s total projected revenue for 2024.
After receiving the order, the company recruited more than 2,000 temporary workers and collaborated with more than 100 upstream factories and downstream enterprises to expand production capacity. “Normally, it would require 45 days to complete one batch of products like the Ne Zha figurines, but now we can deliver once every 10 days,” said CEO Sun Wenke.
On Jan. 29, toy brand FunCrazy, which creates licensed “Ne Zha 2” products, launched a crowdfunding project for a range of related products, a common tactic by peripheral product manufacturers to gauge market expectations. As of Tuesday, the campaign had raised 32 million yuan, over 300 times the initial target. The products include acrylic illustrations for 35 yuan, figurines priced at 198 yuan each, and a six-armed Ne Zha figure for 468 yuan.
Xiong Qian, 33, who works for a foreign trade company in the eastern Jiangsu province, saw the movie three days after its release and has since purchased a Pop Mart blind box, collectible cards, and some figurines, mostly on pre-order. The FunCrazy campaign was the first time she’d participated in crowdfunding.
However, to avoid receiving inferior or counterfeit products, she spent days on various platforms reviewing product feedback and seeking out genuine sales channels through the movie’s official account on the Weibo microblogging platform.
“It’s hard to figure out which channels are legitimate. I don’t want my money going to counterfeit sellers or scalpers. I want to support only the official channels,” she said.
Wei at the Cultural Economics Research Institute emphasized that, although IP protection in China still needs to be improved, the proliferation of counterfeit merchandise is linked largely to the lack of professionalism in IP licensing.
He explained that merchandise licensing requires planning, even as early as during the filmmaking process, with dedicated teams considering the various types of peripheral products. “The producers behind ‘Ne Zha 2’ did not consider its IP development thoroughly, as many of the peripheral products were produced and settled only after the movie’s success,” he said.
Wei believes that, with better planning, official merchandise could be made available more quickly, reducing the opportunities for those making fake goods. “If everyone can easily purchase official products, and they’re not overpriced, demand for counterfeit items will decrease,” he said.
“The current situation is because of the film’s unexpectedly immense popularity,” Wei added. “‘Ne Zha’ is one of the few high-quality IPs that have established themselves in recent years. It’s foreseeable that any sequels will continue to sustain the appeal. The systematic development of related products is something to be eagerly anticipated.”
Editor: Hao Qibao.
(Header image: A “Ne Zha 2” product on display at Wogongchang Culture Co. in Dongguan, Guangdong province, Feb. 17, 2025. VCG)
