Super Zoo

Nangong was so immersed in the movie that Suming started to feel hungry, casually grabbing the chips from Nangong's hand.

"Ah!" Nangong suddenly screamed, startling many people in front, who turned back to look this way, which in turn gave Suming quite the scare.

"What are you yelling for?" Suming said while eating chips.

"It's nothing..." Nangong Yan inhaled sharply and muttered softly, "This movie is so creepy... Are you some kind of psycho to produce such a film?"

"Possibly." Suming nodded solemnly and shook the remaining half bag of chips at her, "Do you still want some?"

"Who could still eat?" Nangong Yan glared at him.

"It's not like they're made of animal meat, what's there not to eat?" Suming tilted his head back and poured the half bag of chips into his mouth, crunching and swallowing them down.

"I'm never eating meat again anyway... I'll throw away my fox fur coat too... No no, you're horrible, I can't even bear to wear clothes or shoes with fur anymore!" Nangong Yan complained.

"How environmentally friendly of you." Suming laughed heartily.

The entire movie lasted only eighty-five minutes. Suming sat in the back row, observing throughout. Except for the occasional gasp, the cinema was almost dead silent for the most part, the audience's attention completely fixed on the big screen, the usual chatter and conversation during movie-watching nowhere to be seen.

The cinema was too dark, to the extent that during the most tense part of the plot, Suming got the impression that the audience might have fallen asleep. However, seeing Nangong Yan clutching tightly at his hand, her palm sweaty, he knew that was unlikely. Nangong Yan's lack of focus while watching movies was notorious; in the past, she would watch films while eating, chatting and scrolling through WeChat, sometimes even editing news drafts on the side. If someone like her could be captivated by the plot, the movie must be considered a success.

The eighty or so minutes flew by, and in the final scene of the movie, the brother Nangong Huang suddenly woke up drenched in sweat, revealing all that had happened to be a dream.

The siblings reconciled, and Nangong Huang took his sister to the riverside. They released a few fish they had bought into the water. The big fish flicked its tail in the water, swimming away, leaving behind a winding trail.

The lights in the auditorium gradually brightened, with the film crew's credits appearing on the big screen. The most numerous were the voice actors; the film's main allure was that the principal characters were played by real animals, and with so many animal characters speaking human words, a large cast of voice actors was necessary.

The audience seemed a little lost, many still maintaining their final postures, sitting in their seats, unwilling to stand, clearly wanting more.

After waiting for about two to three minutes, only a few people began to leave, while the majority stayed inside, finally waiting for the post-credits scene.

The post-credits scene consisted of behind-the-scenes outtakes, where the animals involved in filming transformed from the terrifying villains of the movie into somewhat clumsy creatures. Some shots took several takes to get right, especially standing upright, which proved so challenging for the animals that it amused and exasperated the staff on site.

"Dear guests, the movie has ended. Please take your personal belongings with you, and thank you for visiting Wanda Cinema..."

As the movie ended and the audience dispersed, Suming, with his head lowered, walked alongside Nangong Yan, following the crowd through the exit passageway.

All along the way from their seats to leaving the cinema, there were various discussions about Terror Animal City.

"I can't even imagine, I feel like I won't dare to sleep when I get home tonight..."

"Don't think too much about this film, it's terrifying upon reflection." Explore new worlds at My Virtual Library Empire

"Don't overthink it; it's just a movie, though it is indeed quite scary."

"Are those animals real, or are they special effects? They're so lifelike!"

On the way back from the cinema, Nangong Yan was in a contemplative state the entire drive. Suming glanced at her and asked, "What are you thinking about?"

"Do you think, if this world were really ruled by animals, it could actually become like what the movie says?" Nangong asked.

The scene that had made the deepest impression on her was a fashion show in this animal-dominated world, where the models were foxes and wolves, draped in luxurious fur coats, each piece made of various kinds of fur fashioned into dazzling garments, each one exceedingly valuable and radiant.

Due to censorship, there were no horror scenes in the film. One could only tell from the "models'" clothing, which was similar to the fur worn by humans.

But just like the overall idea of the movie, it was terrifying upon reflection. There was a fur-processing factory and a hunting team in the movie. One scene showed the hunting team's Bear Captain, leading grizzlies, Polar Bears, and cheetah members, sending a large group of prey: humans, into the fur-processing factory.

Anyone with a bit of sense knew where that fur came from.

"But now it's humans who rule the world," Suming said.

"What if one day animals rule the world?" Nangong Yan pursued doggedly.

After thinking it over, Suming said, "It's just a movie. Here's the thing, human beings' slaughter of their own kind is no less than that of other species. The slave society, Native Americans, and even the burial rites of the feudal era, were bloody tragedies. However, those who rule the world are always the intelligent beings and as society and civilization advance, ignorant acts will become increasingly less common. If one day all animals developed intelligence and became intelligent beings like humans, I think there might be a war between the two, followed by a new redistribution of the world's structure and entering a new era together. The situation depicted in the movie wouldn't happen. And if it did, it would only be a brief transition."

"Ah? That sounds so positive," Nangong Yan was taken aback.

"Conflict is a means; development and progress are the main themes," Suming said cheerfully.

The film industry compiles box office statistics weekly, especially during the lucrative summer blockbuster season, when there's a daily box office summary.

The box office for the first day of the second week of the summer season was tallied by the following afternoon.

With a national screening rate of over 60% on the first day of its release, Tiny Times 4 met expectations splendidly, sweeping up 1.2 billion in box office revenue!

Fan-driven films tend to have a concentrated explosion in ticket sales over a short period; major cinemas promptly increased their screenings, with most main cinemas adding around 5 percentage points to their schedules.

Magic realism's big production, Monk Comes Down the Mountain, grossed 101 million on its opening day, which was quite impressive. If the trend continued, it looked likely to break the billion mark!

Unlike fan-driven films like Tiny Times, cinemas did not add more screenings for Monk Comes Down the Mountain, but instead opted to extend its run time.

Passerby A's box office was average, earning 8 million on the day. For a small-scale art film, that wasn't a bad performance. Even so, cinemas were consciously reducing screenings to make way for other films.

Terror Animal City's opening day box office was 1.24 million.