A Chinese animated film mocked as ‘terrible’ becomes a box-office hit
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A man walks by a drawing poster promoting a Chinese animated film “Niulai” on display with other movie posters at a cinema in Beijing, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026. /Andy Wong)
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A child looks at a drawing poster promoting a Chinese animated film “Niulai” on display with other movie posters at a cinema in Beijing, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026. /Andy Wong)
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A man walks by a drawing poster promoting a Chinese animated film “Niulai” on display with other movie posters at a cinema in Beijing, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026. /Andy Wong)
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A man walks by a drawing poster promoting a Chinese animated film “Niulai” on display with other movie posters at a cinema in Beijing, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026. /Andy Wong)
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A child looks at a drawing poster promoting a Chinese animated film “Niulai” on display with other movie posters at a cinema in Beijing, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026. /Andy Wong)
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A child looks at a drawing poster promoting a Chinese animated film “Niulai” on display with other movie posters at a cinema in Beijing, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026. /Andy Wong)
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The new sensation among some Chinese moviegoers is an animated film whose characters appear to have been created with rudimentary 3D animation and have been described as “ugly” and “eerie.”
But it is the scathing online reviews that seem to have prompted interest in “Niulai,” an animated film about a calf who had a dream about himself growing up with the help of his family, driving a surprising surge at the box office
The film earned only about 10,000 yuan ($1,480) at the box office in the first 10 days after its Aug. 5 release. On some days, the film took in as little as 200 yuan ($30) at the box office a movie-tracking platform. The figure was exceptionally low, particularly during the competitive summer movie season
But its box office surged to 8.2 million yuan ($1.2 million) Monday, with nearly 300,000 admissions Its total box office has reached 17.1 million yuan ($2.5 million)
Red Star News, a local news website in Chengdu, reported that the film was made over five years by just two people — director Xin Yumeng and his mother, Sun Lifan. The Associated Press was unable to reach Xin and could not independently verify this
Posters seen at movie theaters featured a calf, hand-drawn in pen without color, alongside handwritten slogans: “Come on over if you’re into the bizarre” and “No refunds.”
A ‘terrible’ movie viewers recommend as a prank
On Douban, a popular Chinese movie-review platform, viewers piled on with mocking and bewildered comments
Among the most popular: “unbelievably terrible and eye-opening,” “a symbol of the new internet troll culture,” and “a must-watch for Chinese stock market investors.” The last is a play on the film’s name, “Niulai,” which literally means “the bull is coming” in Chinese — a wish for a bull market
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Comments such as “over nine out of ten,” and “awesome and highly recommended” are also among the sarcastic reactions
“My initial intention has always been to play pranks on my friends,” said Du Mingxi, a 19-year-old college student in Shanghai
“If a friend asks me what I think about the movie, I’d say good and recommend them to watch,” he said, adding that he successfully tricked two friends to watch the movie with him. Both found it fun, but one fell asleep during the viewing
Du compared young people going to the movies to see this kind of film to the mysterious “six-seven” craze in the U.S., saying that some are just drawn to things they find weird or funny, with many jumping on a trend whether they get it or not
“They are just the same, it is funny but hard to describe what’s funny about it, and young people just love spreading these memes virally,” said Du
Despite the flood of criticism and memes, some viewers didn’t mind the rudimentary production
Zhong Jiaming, a vocational schoolteacher in Guangzhou, called it a rare find in an era when movies are often “visually exquisite and polished, but their stories can fail to engage.”
“This is a movie for the young at heart,” said Zhong. “It is simple and honest, like a bedtime story for children.”
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