--- title: "China’s First Fully AI Theatrical Film Flayed Alive at the Box Office" description: "A fully AI-generated movie got a major theatrical release in China and has made a comical return at the box office." date: "2026-10-27" modified: "2026-10-27" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore.md" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/china-fully-ai-movie-box-office" categories: - "Art" - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Future Society" --- # China’s First Fully AI Theatrical Film Flayed Alive at the Box Office ![A screenshot of China's first AI feature film, Sanxingdui: Future Past.]() *Bona Film Group* Setting aside the countless concerns you could raise over AI-generated movies, are they actually good enough to draw a crowd at the box office? The performance of China's first fully AI-generated theatrical film suggests not. The film, "Sanxingdui: Future Past," is getting slaughtered at the domestic box office, raking in just $181,00 after being released on October 23, [according to *Cartoon Brew*](). Adding salt to the wound was that this was treated as a proper wide release, with over 10,000 screens scheduled to show it on opening day. With a return of less than $20 per screen so far, it's extremely unlikely that the film's production company, Bona Film Group, will make back its reported budget of $1.5 million. Nearly 100 people worked on the movie for over two years, the company claims, though the "actors" — their voices as well as visuals — are AI-generated. BFG CEO Jiang Defu acknowledged the challenge of finding an audience for an AI movie after the movie's measly ticket presales. "We are the first to try it, the first to get a theatrical release permit and the first to be tested by the audience," he told Chinese film industry outlet *Yuli*, [as quoted by *Agence France-Presse*]()*.* "I think that is not easy at all." It's hard not to see Sanxingdui's failure in light of the [unexpected success of another Chinese animated film](), "Niu Lai." Made by a mother and son for just $200, its clunky animation and amateur performances are just about the opposite of the uncannily-polished visuals that AI models can generate with little effort. But it was precisely "Niu Lai"'s myriad flaws, and the sincerity of the effort behind it, that endeared audiences, and it became a meme as well as actual box office micro-phenomenon, making nearly $10 million. Proportionate to its original budget, it's [one of the most profitable films ever made](). In the US, fully AI movies have also struggled to find screens, with many moviegoers looking down on these churned-out creations [as slop](). That said, there are a hyped up projects on the horizon that are [slated to hit theaters]() soon — if [marketing hype]() is to be believed — though the odds of them finding an audience, let alone making money, aren't necessarily in their favor. **More on AI:** [*Director Blows $1.5 Million Generating Horrendous AI Slop Movie, Says AI Actually Saved Him Tens of Millions*]() ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]() ## More - [The First Fully AI-Generated Movie to Receive an MPA Rating Is Making a Push for an Academy Award, But We Wouldn’t Hold Our Breath]() - [Three Years Ago Today, “Avengers” Director Joe Russo Predicted There Would Be a Fully AI-Generated Movie Within Two Years]() - [Hollywood is Wrong: Netflix is the Future of Film]() - [Amazon Startup Announces Plans to “Finish” Orson Welles’ Lost Film With 43 Minutes of AI-Generated Footage]() - [Cannes Film Festival Says the Wall Street Journal Is Wrong: It’s Not Debuting an AI-Generated Feature Film This Week]() - [The First Horror Film Co-Written By An AI Promises To Be Remarkably Eerie]() - [Paramount Pictures Just Hired a Futurist in Residence to Guide the Future of Film]() - [AI-Generated Film Pulled From AMC Cinemas]()