Kariya carried his ramen over and sat down beside Shinji, naturally joining Shinji and Udagawa Nao's conversation.
"That's right." Udagawa Nao nodded modestly. "The company made a fortune from FSN, so naturally it's taking the new movie very seriously."
In fact, "made a fortune" didn't begin to cover it. FSN had already grossed an astonishing 12.4 billion yen in Japan, and its box-office total was still climbing.
More importantly, the film had grossed a total of 470 million dollars worldwide. Breaking 500 million and reaching 600 million was no problem at all.
Although Bandai wouldn't get a share of FSN's worldwide box office, Jidai Group's distribution channels had helped Bandai sell toys in Europe and America until its hands were practically numb.
The exact figures were still being tallied, but Shinji had already heard some industry gossip from Waver about Jidai Group's internal numbers.
"I hope this movie does as well as FSN."
Kariya sighed, his eyes fixed on Shinji the whole time.
As an actor, he still only counted as second-rate.
If FZ became a huge hit, Kariya thought his career might finally advance to the next level.
After all, the lead actors in FSN had already received countless offers. If Artoria and the other Heroic Spirits weren't unable to leave Fuyuki City, they'd probably be running between film sets by now.
Kariya couldn't help feeling envious of their treatment.
"Don't worry, Uncle." Shinji patted Kariya on the back. "FZ can hit theaters during next year's summer season."
Then Shinji turned to Udagawa Nao. "Miss Udagawa, we'll need you to put a lot of effort into the promotion. Movies like this rely heavily on publicity."
Commercial films were different from art films. Word of mouth wasn't the most important thing; large-scale promotion was.
Shinji didn't want to see a