Deliberately Bad Chinese Animated Film Becomes Surprise Box-Office Success After Going Viral

An animated feature that critics and audiences have lambasted for its primitive visuals and awkward character design has unexpectedly become a commercial hit in China, driven largely by online ridicule and viral social media campaigns. The film “Niulai,” which follows a young calf whose family helps him realize his ambitions, earned only approximately 10,000 yuan ($1,480) during its first 10 days following an August 5 release, with some days generating as little as 200 yuan ($30) in ticket sales.

The fortunes of the movie reversed dramatically in recent days, with box-office revenues surging to 8.2 million yuan ($1.2 million) on a single Monday, drawing nearly 300,000 viewers, according to Maoyan, a Chinese movie-tracking service. Total box-office earnings have now reached 17.1 million yuan ($2.5 million), a remarkable turnaround from its initial commercial failure during the crowded summer movie season.

According to reporting by Red Star News, a Chengdu-based news outlet, the film was developed over five years by director Xin Yumeng and his mother, Sun Lifan, with no independent verification possible. Movie theater posters displayed a minimalist pen-and-ink drawing of a calf accompanied by hand-scrawled slogans including “Come on over if you’re into the bizarre” and “No refunds.”

On Douban, a major Chinese film-review platform, audiences flooded the page with sarcastic and mocking commentary, with popular reviews describing the work as “unbelievably terrible and eye-opening” and “a symbol of the new internet troll culture.” The film’s title, which translates to “the bull is coming,” became fodder for financial jokes, with reviewers sarcastically suggesting it was “a must-watch for Chinese stock market investors,” a reference to bull market terminology.

Du Mingxi, a 19-year-old university student in Shanghai, acknowledged that he intentionally recommended the film to friends as a prank, successfully convincing two acquaintances to view it. One friend fell asleep during the screening, though both ultimately found the experience entertaining. Du compared the phenomenon to unexplained internet crazes, noting that young people are drawn to bizarre or absurd content regardless of whether they fully understand it.

Not all viewers dismissed the film’s crude production values. Zhong Jiaming, a vocational school instructor in Guangzhou, characterized it as a refreshing alternative to contemporary cinema, which he said is frequently “visually exquisite and polished, but their stories can fail to engage.” He described the work as “simple and honest, like a bedtime story for children.”