Sanxingdui: Future Past is China’s first full-length AI movie to reach theaters. Bona Film Group made the movie with AI, a type of computer technology. Its main character studies objects from the past and must save a future world under AI control. The movie cost $1.5 million to make, but ticket sales reached only about $180,000 through Monday.
Jiang Defu, a top manager at Bona, accepted that the movie did not do well. Still, he called it an important test. People online had different opinions about the film. One strongly disliked it, while another liked the low costs and freedom to tell stories.
AI is already common in China’s very short dramas for social media. China released more than 120,000 of these dramas in the first three months of 2026. AI made over 95% of them, compared with almost none a year earlier. Making these dramas can cost as little as $3,000.
Stanley Rosen, a professor at the University of Southern California, says people generally accept short films but question longer ones. He thinks AI movies need quality like Avatar or Nezha 2 to attract theater audiences. He says they may instead find viewers on services like Netflix. He also expects this movie’s losses to make other filmmakers more careful.
