China’s First AI Feature Limps Through Second Weekend, Reaching Just $253,000 After 11 Days

After a brutal opening weekend that saw Bona Film Group’s Sanxingdui: Future Past, China’s first full AI-generated theatrical feature, make only around $180,000 from more than 10,000 screenings, the film has followed up with a similarly ignominious second weekend that gave no indication of a possible box office recovery.

According to the China Movie Box Office dashboard, at the time of writing, the film had earned roughly RMB1.68 million ($253,000) through Monday, November 2, its 11th day in theaters. Since our October 26 opening weekend report, the film has added only around $71,000 to its Chinese box office total.

Precise second-weekend totals aren’t available yet, at least not from our usual sources, but the film’s earnings over the intervening week mean it suffered a weekend decline of 60% or more.

The most optimistic Chinese market trackers now predict the film won’t even make back a third of its budget at the box office. Estimates cap out at around RMB3.07 million $460,000. That seems highly optimistic given the way the film fell off in week two.

According to reporting by Chinese outfit Jiemian, the “filmmakers” behind Sanxingdui produced the film to establish a viable pipeline for bringing genAI into feature filmmaking, and they believe they’ve done that. However, after recouping such a small fraction of the film’s budget, viability may not be the right word for what they proved.

Despite the losses, Bona is pressing ahead with more AI films. According to an October 29 Investment Times report published by Tonghuashun, the company has another AI science-fiction animated feature in production and a mythology-themed animated project in development.

The company may have proved that it can force AI-generated films into theaters and onto TV screens, but so far, it has done little to demonstrate that audiences are willing to pay for AI-generated content. While memes, TikToks, and Instagram reels may rack up huge viewing numbers, people are less willing to pony up real money to watch it in longer formats.