The key facts
- More than 10,000 screenings of 'Sanxingdui: Future Past' are scheduled for Friday (Maoyan)
- Pre-sales — 65,000 yuan ($9,700), box office forecast below 100,000 yuan against a budget of over 10 million yuan
- On Douyin, AI dramas amassed more than 200 billion views in September
Premiere of China's first AI film
On Friday, 'Sanxingdui: Future Past' opens in Chinese cinemas — a science-fiction thriller that has become the country's first fully AI-generated feature film. According to the Maoyan platform, more than 10,000 screenings are scheduled. However, public interest is muted: pre-sales by Thursday evening amounted to 65,000 yuan ($9,700), and total box office, according to Maoyan's forecast, will remain below 100,000 yuan — only a small fraction of the stated production cost.
Industry and audience reaction
Bona Film Group CEO Yu Dong (Jiang Defu) acknowledged the lukewarm reception but emphasized the project's pioneering nature: 'We were the first to try, the first to get a theatrical release permit, and the first to be tested by audiences. I think this is not easy at all,' he told the industry publication Yuli. According to Bona, nearly 100 people worked on the film for more than two years, and the budget exceeded 10 million yuan ($1.5 million). Viewer Iris Yang, after a free preview screening, said she would not pay for a ticket at this quality level: 'If AI generation reaches the theatrical level of Avatar, I would be willing to pay.' Independent AI director Zhang Jun told AFP that 'audiences will not automatically buy tickets just because a film was created by AI.' Weibo users are also skeptical: 'If it were free on streaming, it could become a legend. But pay for it? At this stage, people won't accept it,' one of them wrote.
Context: AI video and Hollywood
AI video generation is gaining popularity in the world's second-largest economy: on Douyin, AI short dramas amassed more than 200 billion views in September alone. In Hollywood, the rise of AI is raising job-loss concerns among film industry workers. In the US, the AI-generated sci-fi film 'The Gods Do Not Give Gifts' will be released on December 4, while virtual actress Tilly Norwood, whose interviews went viral amid fears over jobs, will star in the upcoming film 'Misaligned'.
