AI Feature 'Sanxingdui: Future Past' Debuts to Weak Ticket Sales in China as Low-Budget 'Niu Lai' Nears $10M

Sanxingdui: Future Past, which its producers bill as China's first AI-generated theatrical film, opened in Chinese cinemas to weak ticket sales, as a post from ToonHive highlighted. AFP, citing Maoyan, reported more than 10,000 opening-day screenings, yet trade estimates put the film's first four days near RMB1.2 million against a stated production cost above 10 million yuan.

• Early grosses landed near RMB1.2 million. An estimate in Cartoon Brew's box-office report put the film at RMB1.21 million (about $181,000) through its first four days in release.
• Bona puts the production cost above 10 million yuan. AFP reports that figure as about $1.5 million, with nearly 100 people working on the film for more than two years.
• Screenings were plentiful; audiences were not. The Beijing screening AFP attended had four audience members.
• ToonHive's $121,000 figure does not match trade estimates. The post put the gross at $121,000 against a $1.5 million budget, below Cartoon Brew's estimate of about $181,000.
• ToonHive's post sets the film against Niu Lai. The crudely animated feature had grossed a cumulative RMB64.29 million (nearly $10 million) as of Cartoon Brew's report on the Sanxingdui opening.

Télérama's Maoyan-based figure tracks Cartoon Brew's estimate, and both cover only the opening days

A report from Télérama, citing Maoyan, put the film at RMB1.22 million four days after release. That is a slightly different snapshot from Cartoon Brew's RMB1.21 million estimate.

Both are opening-run figures rather than a final lifetime gross. The production cost is Bona's own stated number, not audited accounts.

AFP also reported presales of 80,000 yuan on the morning of opening day, a figure separate from the gross.

Niu Lai, made for a reported $200 to $500, had climbed to nearly $10 million

According to a Vulture explainer on Niu Lai, the film is the work of director Xin Yumeng and Xin's mother, Sun Lifang, who spent five years on its rudimentary animation. Vulture reported the budget at $200 to $500.

Cartoon Brew reports that Niu Lai had a weak first ten days in release before reaching its cumulative RMB64.29 million, the total it gave in its report on the Sanxingdui opening. Vulture's figure of 45 million yuan (about $6.7 million) was a snapshot from partway through that run.

The roughly $200 figure is an estimate, according to Animation Magazine. Neither reported Niu Lai budget is presented as an audited, all-in cost covering labor, distribution or marketing.

Niu Lai's success was driven in part by its spread as a so-bad-it's-good meme.

The 'first AI film' label comes from the producers, and nearly 100 people worked on it

The claim that Sanxingdui: Future Past is China's first fully AI-generated theatrical film comes from its producers.

According to AFP's screening report, Bona says nearly 100 people worked on the film for more than two years, so human labor remained a substantial part of the production.

AFP attended a screening in Beijing for that report and interviewed one of the four viewers in the room.