@oldhollywoodcapWhat NIU LAI pulled off is the stranger story: a crudely animated Chinese indie from filmmaker Xin Yumeng and her mother Sun Lifang, reportedly made for a few hundred dollars, that reached nearly $10 million at the box office. Clips of its bizarre animation got passed around online, the film went viral, and what began as mockery settled into a communal moviegoing phenomenon. Set that against SANXINGDUI: FUTURE PAST, described as China's first fully AI-generated theatrical feature. It opened on October 23 and has earned an estimated $181,000, with a reported production budget of $1.5 million. Close to 100 people worked on the sci-fi film for more than two years, and its characters, voices and backgrounds were all AI-generated. Two budgets, two box-office outcomes.

@oldhollywoodcapWhat NIU LAI pulled off is the stranger story: a crudely animated Chinese indie from filmmaker Xin Yumeng and her mother Sun Lifang, reportedly made for a few hundred dollars, that reached nearly $10 million at the box office. Clips of its bizarre animation got passed around online, the film went viral, and what began as mockery settled into a communal moviegoing phenomenon. Set that against SANXINGDUI: FUTURE PAST, described as China's first fully AI-generated theatrical feature. It opened on October 23 and has earned an estimated $181,000, with a reported production budget of $1.5 million. Close to 100 people worked on the sci-fi film for more than two years, and its characters, voices and backgrounds were all AI-generated. Two budgets, two box-office outcomes.