China’s first entirely AI-generated feature film to reach cinemas has performed poorly. Sanxingdui: Future Past earned an estimated $180,000 in ticket sales through Monday, according to ticketing platform Maoyan. Its production budget was $1.5 million.
Produced by Bona Film Group, the science-fiction thriller follows an archaeologist, someone who studies objects from the past. The character must save a future world controlled by AI. Bona’s chief operating officer, Jiang Defu, acknowledged the disappointing response but described the production as an important experiment. He stressed that it was the first such film to receive permission for a cinema release and face an audience’s judgement.
Online reactions were mixed: one viewer expressed strong dislike, while another praised the low costs and storytelling freedom of AI filmmaking. The weak cinema performance contrasts with AI’s popularity in microdramas, which are very short stories made for social media. According to Caixin, more than 95% of over 120,000 Chinese microdramas released in the first quarter of 2026 were AI-generated, up from almost none a year earlier. Production costs can now be as low as $3,000.
Stanley Rosen, a University of Southern California professor specialising in Chinese film and society, says people generally accept short-form films but remain doubtful about using AI in major feature films.
