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Viral Chinese animated film Niu Lai surges after poor reviews
After debuting on Aug. 5 with 3,420 yuan, the film’s screenings in China jumped from 21 to 359 within a day once meme posts drove demand.
A Chinese animated film has drawn runaway audiences not for its quality, but for how critics and viewers describe it. The film, Niu Lai, or The Arrival of the Ox, debuted on Aug. 5 with just 3,420 yuan (US$507) at the box office, according to the South China Morning Post.
About 10 days later, attention surged and revenue followed. On Saturday its box office climbed to 717,000 yuan, and it reached more than 11 million yuan on Monday, placing its accumulated earnings in the top 10 for China’s domestic animated box office charts this year, the outlet reported.
The film’s popularity has been tied to online memes and public curiosity after it drew criticism for a rough, broken style and a confusing plot, including “stiff and glitchy” animation and jarring voice acting cited by the Beijing News. As the film went viral, audience demand pushed the number of screenings across the country from 21 to 359 within a day, the report said.
The creator story also fueled interest. The film was made by director Xin Yumeng and his mother Sun Lifang, with the duo spending five years producing an 86-minute, frame by frame animation from a home computer without a professional crew, while Sun wrote the screenplay, provided voice acting, and sang the ending credits song. The sudden rise has been described as a blow to more “serious” filmmakers, including director Liu Bing, who wrote that his team had aimed for 100,000 yuan but Niu Lai surpassed that mark in a single day.