Huayu 05, our science fiction movie universe

Chapter 629 First Day Profit of 5000 Million

Is this how it ends?

As evening fell, the engines of the Star River Amusement Park parade floats echoed along the main road. It was already 5:30 p.m., and Zhao Jinmai and her two companions squeezed on tiptoe next to the railing in the first row.

Not far away, on the float for "Ne Zha," the smoky-eyed demon boy and the handsome Ne Zha from Shanghai Animation Film Studio waved to the audience.

These were the last few floats in the parade. Behind the "Ne Zha" float, on the "Ball Lightning" float, Dr. Chen Ang, played by Wang Zhiwen, was activating the "Blue Sun" device.

The crackling lightning effects and blue plasma spheres stood out prominently at the top of the float, and only after the last float passed did the nightlife at [Galaxy Paradise] truly begin.

Zhao Jinmai and her two companions followed at the end of the float procession, while Wang Bingbing's team was also in the crowd watching the floats.

Aerial footage swept across the 1.2-kilometer-long parade route, showing 28 floats like a string of flowing jewels, dazzling and radiant against the increasingly dim sky, transforming most of the park into a dreamlike spectacle.

Yes, this day felt like falling into a dream, and it was truly something I didn't want to wake up from.

But the dream wasn't over yet. As the last float crossed the bridge leading out of the park, the river below, sparkling lights began to twinkle, as if the Milky Way had been brought down to earth.

Tourists standing by the river watched this scene with curiosity, thinking that the river water was reflecting the starlight in the sky. But when they looked up, although the sky above had darkened to a deep blue, the remaining afterglow in the west was still obscuring the light of the stars.

So this "starlight"... The next second, accompanied by a slight buzzing sound, the starlight in the river moved, rising vertically as it swayed. As the distance closed, the tourists realized that the so-called starlight was actually LED lights on drones.

These performance drones, specially manufactured by DJI, took off in an orderly fashion under the control of the backstage crew, transforming the "galaxy" on the ground into the "galaxy" in the sky.

And this "Milky Way" is slowly flowing in the sky, sometimes turning into the "Three-Body System", sometimes into the "Xingtian Mech", and sometimes into the "Demon Child Nezha" riding on the Wind and Fire Wheels.

Because of its height, even those not present at the event can witness these magical scenes from their seats in the Wild Beast Lodge in the jungle or in the Starship Restaurant, through the windows.

This is the drone show that [Galaxy Park] only has at night.

Tourists looked up at the scene and took out their phones to record the beautiful moment. Children screamed, jumped, and were overjoyed amidst the starry sky and various strange figures, animals, mechs, and buildings reflected in the light.

"So beautiful!"

Zhao Jinmai and her friends couldn't help but sigh as they watched this scene.

But that wasn't all. After the drone light show ended, bursts of dazzling fireworks exploded in the sky.

Although it is located in the capital city, which is in principle a no-fireworks zone, [Star River Amusement Park] is a special case. The application for the fireworks display had been submitted in advance to the TZ District and the BJ Municipal Government.

Police and firefighters are on duty at the fireworks launch site every day.

Clusters of fireworks soared into the sky, marking a perfect end to the first day of operation for [Galaxy Paradise].

After the performances ended, the visitors left the park in an orderly manner following announcements over the park's public address system.

"Sigh, it's still not quite there yet!"

Wang Hao, who was stopping by for an inspection after get off work, stood at the highest point of the [Star River Amusement Park] monitoring center. Looking down at the park through the semi-circular window, he watched the bustling park gradually become deserted and couldn't help but sigh:
"It would be perfect if a light show were added. The park is still missing a large, iconic building."

The park manager standing nearby couldn't help but nod in agreement upon hearing this.

"Indeed, Disney has Disney Castle, and Universal has Hogwarts Castle; these are both very iconic buildings. Our parks here are more balanced..."

"After all, we still need to consider the connection between the theme park and the cinematic universe."

Wang Hao quickly put his feelings of regret behind him.

"Once the operation of [Galaxy Park] stabilizes, the second phase of the project can begin. At that time, we will develop along the river, expand the aerospace-themed area, and once the 'planetary engine' is erected and the related movie is released, our [Galaxy Park] will become a unique theme park in the world!"

Regardless of how Wang Hao explained the subsequent operational direction to the park manager, after [Xinghe Amusement Park] closed, there were already a large number of short videos and guides about [Xinghe Amusement Park] on the Internet.

For mobile internet video bloggers, [Star River Paradise] has been the source of traffic these days. Any content related to it can get a lot of traffic and promotion on the Douyin platform, allowing them to reap many benefits.

The content of [Galaxy Park] is indeed able to attract a large number of viewers. After all, it is the largest film and television theme park in China, built by a Chinese company. It is China's Disneyland and Universal Studios.

The live streams by Wang Bingbing's team and hundreds of bloggers during the day alone garnered over 3 million views on Douyin for [Xinghe Paradise].

In the evening, after the tourists compiled the videos they had recorded during the day and uploaded them to Douyin (TikTok), the total number of views for the related videos exceeded ten million.

In addition, different people take different videos, and there are also significant differences in the details about [Galaxy Paradise].

For example, Zhao Jinmai's video about the "high table bar" and a video blogger's video about the "mythical beast black market" have received millions of likes because of their uniqueness.

In addition, videos of celebrities such as Wang Hao, Liu Ye, Jing Tian, ​​Xie Miao, Wang Zhiwen, Shu Chang, Bai Jingting, Song Zuer, and Satomi Ishihara, showing themselves dressed up at Xinghe Amusement Park, also caused quite a stir, pushing the news #CelebritiesGatherAtXingheAmusementPark# to the top of the trending topics list, even more popular than the news #XingheAmusementParkOpening#.

This has led many people to regret not trying to buy tickets earlier.

Correspondingly, many tourists who have already purchased tickets for Galaxy Park are even more excited about the entertainment experience they are about to enjoy.

Judging from the short videos online, [Galaxy Park] is far better than Shanghai Disneyland in terms of environment, service, and value for money.

As for other domestic amusement parks like Happy Valley and Fantawild Adventure, they are simply incomparable to it.

This made those who had already enjoyed the ride at [Galaxy Park] on the first day extremely proud, especially after posting on Douyin or WeChat Moments, enjoying everyone's praise and envy, which made them feel even happier.

For every person who is happy, there is someone who is sad.

That evening, Luo Wei called his girlfriend Zhang Qian, but no one answered the phone after dialing the number for a long time.

I saw you on the live stream. Who was that guy with you?

Didn't you say you were going with your best friend?

Why did you lie to me?!

Let's break up...

Not to mention that another heartbroken man was added to the list that night, the next day, when Wang Hao sat down in his office, he saw a report on the operation of [Star River Paradise] on its opening day.

On September 20, 2018, the first day of the opening of Xinghe Amusement Park, it received a total of 80,000 visitors.

Local tourists accounted for 43%, tourists from surrounding cities accounted for 35%, and tourists from distant places (across provinces) accounted for 22%.

In terms of revenue, the opening day is a special date, with regular tickets priced at 559 yuan, VIP tickets at 999 yuan, and premium tickets at 1299 yuan.

Of these, 80% were ordinary tourists, and the total ticket revenue for the day was 5337.6 million yuan.

In addition, more than 2,000 "YUST" tickets were sold on the same day, priced at 180 yuan each, generating 396,000 yuan in revenue, bringing the total ticket revenue to 5377.2 million yuan.

In terms of catering revenue, the Xinghe Paradise park has 30 restaurants and snack stalls, covering a variety of choices including Chinese, Western and international flavors, with an average consumption of 70 yuan per person and a total revenue of 560 million yuan.

In terms of retail sales, more than 50 stores located in various themed areas sell exclusive merchandise, themed IP dolls, and unique souvenirs for Galaxy Park.

Average retail sales per person were 120 yuan, with total revenue of 960 million yuan.

The spinning tops in the "Dreamland Theme Zone" and the golden cudgel figurines in the "Traditional Chinese Animation Theme Zone" became the best-selling items.

In addition, revenue from entertainment facilities, including photography services and costume/prop rentals within the park, totals 80 yuan.

The total revenue on the park's opening day was 6977.2 million yuan.

After deducting daily labor costs, equipment maintenance costs, marketing and promotion costs, commodity procurement costs, catering raw material costs, as well as other costs such as water and electricity fees, site cleaning fees, and facility depreciation fees, the park's final profit on the first day was around 5000 million yuan, accounting for about 70% of the total revenue.

Of these revenues, ticket sales are the primary source of profit, accounting for approximately 77% of total revenue.

Food and beverage and retail of related merchandise, as important supplementary income, accounted for 8% and 13.8% respectively.

From this perspective, there is still considerable room for improvement in revenue from catering and related merchandise sales. In the future, revenue can be further increased by optimizing the variety of related merchandise and launching special catering packages.

In addition, there were many problems inside the park on the first day of opening, and some complaints were received from tourists.

The long queues for some popular attractions have negatively impacted the visitor experience. The queue management system needs to be optimized, and measures such as increasing the capacity of fast lanes or implementing off-peak strategies should be considered to guide visitors to other attractions.

Meanwhile, during the morning dining peak hours, some restaurants experienced problems such as sold-out dishes, insufficient supply, and long waiting times. Considering that the number of visitors to the park will further increase in the future, it is necessary to adjust the restaurant operation strategy in a timely manner, estimate the flow of visitors, prepare ingredients and manpower in advance, and even add new restaurants in the surrounding areas.

Some visitors also reported that the park is too large and the internal information signs are not clear enough, which makes it time-consuming to find themed areas, restrooms, and exits. The park signage system needs to be improved, the number of signs increased, guidance systems and staff installed, and the park map and navigation functions on the APP improved.

Although there were some problems, overall, the operation of [Galaxy Park] on its first day of opening was quite good. Despite the number of visitors exceeding expectations, it still withstood great pressure, ensured the smooth operation of the park, and achieved high profitability.

"Great, notify the park management to give all the staff a big red envelope. They really worked hard yesterday."

Wang Hao closed the document he had just finished reading, gave his secretary some instructions, and then went back to handling other company business.

The opening of Xinghe Paradise is not just a matter for Xinghe Paradise alone. With the official operation of this theme park, a large number of tourists have flocked to Xinghe Resort, which is also a major benefit to the surrounding area.

In this regard, when the Beijing Municipal Government and even higher authorities approved the project, they intended to develop [Star River Paradise] into a key local cultural and tourism project, which would greatly promote the cultural and tourism industry in the entire region.

Hotels like Xinghe Cinema, which is right next to Xinghe Amusement Park, and those in the surrounding area were among the first to benefit.

Given the size of Galaxy Park, tourists from other places will definitely not stay here for just one day. They will inevitably visit the surrounding attractions and choose hotels closer to the park.

However, in the following days, an unexpected "guy" came out on top and surpassed the [Galaxy Cinema] and the surrounding hotels and restaurants. That was Galaxy Shopping Plaza, a subsidiary of Galaxy Group.

There are two Galaxy Shopping Plazas near Galaxy Cinema.

When tourists planning to visit Xinghe Amusement Park stay at hotels near Xinghe Cinema, they naturally choose Xinghe Shopping Plaza because they know they need to bring some food and drinks when visiting the park.

This trip to the shopping mall provided these tourists with a delightful experience even before they visited [Galaxy Paradise].

Who would have thought that they would receive such exceptional service at a supermarket?

First of all, the exterior of this shopping mall looks very grand, the overall space design is simple and stylish, the interior is bright and spacious, with white as the main color, and the whole mall is transparent and bright.

Then there's the supermarket on the basement level, which is packed with people almost every day. There are several types of shopping carts at the supermarket entrance, suitable for adults, the elderly, and children. There's also a pet storage area and a designated smoking area.

As for stepping inside Xinghe Shopping Plaza, it is even more different from other ordinary supermarkets.

Leaving aside the countless other convenient details, just take the restrooms at Xinghe Shopping Plaza. They not only have dressing rooms, but also plenty of makeup mirrors and full-length mirrors. The dressing tables are also equipped with free hair ties, combs, cotton swabs, and hairspray, making it perfect for women to quickly touch up their makeup after using the restroom.

Even the faucets in their bathrooms are imported Dyson handwashing and hair dryer combo faucets, which cost as much as 18,000 yuan.

The mother and baby room right next to the bathroom is even more luxurious: it has a sofa, a crib, a bottle warmer, a sterilizer, a small refrigerator, a constant temperature water dispenser, diapers, etc., which is more complete than in an ordinary family.

These things alone were enough to broaden the horizons of the tourists who experienced them, and they couldn't help but marvel at how well the citizens of Beijing know how to enjoy life, having such a treasure supermarket right at their doorstep.

(End of this chapter)