Chinese Animated Flop “Niu Lai” Becomes $2.5M Hit After Going Viral for Being “Terrible”

A Chinese animated film that began as a massive box office flop has turned into a viral phenomenon, thanks to people flocking to see just how “bad” it really is. Niu Lai, an 86-minute film about a young cow and a skylark in a dream sequence, has become one of the most unexpected success stories of the year.

The film, reportedly made over five years by a mother-and-son duo using secondhand equipment, initially earned just 7,705 yuan (about US$1,070) in its first ten days. Some days, ticket sales were as low as 200 yuan. Then, social media got hold of it. Clips of its “terrible” animation and confusing plot started circulating, with users mocking its amateurish quality. But the mockery quickly turned into curiosity, and curiosity turned into a stampede. The film has now crossed 17.1 million yuan (about US$2.5 million) at the box office, holding its own against Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey in Chinese cinemas.

Cinemas didn’t even have official promotional materials for the film, so staff started hand-drawing their own posters, often with quirky slogans. One popular slogan read: “You may regret it for 80 minutes if you watch it, but if you don’t, you’ll regret it for life.” The film’s earnest, unpolished aesthetic became its biggest selling point, with audiences celebrating it as a “hand-crafted” antidote to overly polished, AI-generated content.

Despite its box office success, the film has drawn criticism. A commentary by state-owned newspaper Beijing News warned that the film could lower audience expectations and called on cinemas to act as “gatekeepers” and reject “films that are obviously not up to standard.” For now, however, the phenomenon has captured the public’s imagination, proving that sometimes, the worst reviews can lead to the biggest successes.