I recently watched *Fly Like a Butterfly 3*, and what left the deepest impression wasn’t actually the plot—it was the ending: no flowers, no champagne, just two grimy, middle-aged men having a conversation and then walking away separately. It feels a bit like a snapshot of life itself.

In fact, the story behind this film is even more interesting. As one of the major investors, Enlight Media bet right on *Fly Like a Butterfly 3*. After all, they had only just, in 2025, struck big from the dark-horse film *Nezha: The Devilish Child Comes to the Sea*—their cumulative box office reached 154.46 billion yuan, which put them directly at the top of China’s all-time box office chart. The company’s earnings forecast released last January showed that net profit was expected to be 15 to 19 billion yuan, representing a year-on-year increase of more than 400%. Growth like this in the film industry is almost miraculous.

But there’s a problem. A feat like *Nezha*—the kind of rare success that happens once in a hundred years—is almost impossible to replicate. What Enlight Media is facing now is the pain of earnings reverting to normal. *Fly Like a Butterfly 3* performed well during the Spring Festival period, but based on a 4 billion yuan box office figure, the net profit contribution Enlight Media could make through ticket revenue sharing with Maoyan Entertainment would likely be only about 200 to 230 million yuan. Compared with *Nezha*, the gap is huge. That means 2026 will likely be a relatively ordinary year for Enlight.

However, from the production perspective, Enlight Media really is doing the right things. Both *Fly Like a Butterfly 3* and *Nezha* represent the highest standards of industrialized filmmaking. With advances in AI technology, the film industry is going through a process of differentiation. AI can mass-produce 75-point works, but it’s hard to reach 90 points or above. Over the past two years, Enlight Media’s strategy has been to keep making premium films rated above 90—works like *Detective Chinatown 1900* and *Lang Lang Mountain Little Monster* have all demonstrated the advantages of this industrialized approach.

But in the long run, whether Enlight Media’s market valuation can support this kind of earnings volatility is the real question. If subsequent IP projects—such as *Big Fish & Begonia 2*—don’t perform well, and with the 2026 animation film market returning to normal, competition will only get fiercer. Animation film production cycles last 3 to 5 years, so the company may face cash flow pressure. So the success of *Fly Like a Butterfly 3* is only a temporary breather—the real test is still ahead.