China’s first AI-generated feature film to receive a cinema release has struggled at the box office, taking an estimated $180,000 despite a reported production budget of $1.5 million.
Sanxingdui: Future Past, produced by Bona Film Group, is a science-fiction thriller about an archaeologist attempting to save a future world enslaved by artificial intelligence, according to Chinese state media.
The film’s lukewarm reception was acknowledged by Jiang Defu, Bona’s chief operating officer, who described the release as an important experiment in an interview with Chinese film outlet Yuli.
“We are the first to try it, the first to get a theatrical release permit, and the first to be tested by the audience,” Mr Jiang said. “I think that is not easy at all.”
Reaction on Xiaohongshu, a Chinese social media platform similar to Instagram, has been mixed. One user wrote: “China’s first AI movie totally traumatized me.” Another said the film showed that AI movies were “super low-cost” and allowed stories to be told “with complete freedom”.
Audience doubts over AI-generated feature films
The film’s performance contrasts with the rapid expansion of AI-generated microdramas in China. More than 95% of the country’s 120,000-plus microdramas released in the first quarter of 2026 were reportedly made using AI, compared with almost none a year earlier.
Production costs for the short-form dramas have fallen to as little as $3,000. Their popularity, however, has not yet translated into clear demand for full-length AI-generated feature films in cinemas.
Stanley Rosen, a University of Southern California professor specialising in Chinese film and society, said the public remained “highly skeptical about AI use in major feature films, despite their general acceptance of short-form films”.
He said audiences were unlikely to choose an AI-generated cinema film unless it could match the quality of productions such as Avatar or Nezha 2. Such projects may instead be better suited to streaming services including Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, he added.
Mr Rosen said the financial loss suffered by Sanxingdui: Future Past would encourage filmmakers considering AI-generated features to proceed more cautiously.
The use of AI in filmmaking has also proved contentious in the United States, where screenwriters and actors went on strike in 2023 partly over demands for safeguards against the technology. AI models from companies including ByteDance and Higgsfield AI are already being used in Hollywood productions.
Netflix released the crime thriller Animals on October 9. Its director, Ben Affleck, has said he used AI “for lots of things in that movie”, although he was “a little bit hesitant to point out what they are” because films are intended to preserve the illusion of reality.
