The low-budget Chinese animated film "Niu Lai," meaning "The Cow Has Come," unexpectedly became a hit after viewers shared and mocked its strange image quality and storyline. The "so bad it's good" trend pushed ticket sales from under 8,000 yuan in the first 10 days to over 14.9 million yuan, competing with major Hollywood blockbusters in China's box office rankings.
The low-budget Chinese animation "Niu Lai," translating to "The Cow Has Come," emerged as the surprise hit of China's summer season after receiving overwhelming online attention, despite initially being almost unknown and heavily criticized for its animation quality.
"Niu Lai" is an 86-minute film telling the story of a newborn calf and a hornbill bird developing a relationship through abstract dreamlike events. It was released in China on 5 Aug 2023 GMT+7 and earned only about 7,700 yuan during its first 10 days, with fewer than 300 tickets sold nationwide.
The film had no pre-release promotional events, no advance marketing, and no trailers. However, criticism about its confusing story and rough animation quickly sparked video shares and memes on social media.
Subsequently, many viewers went to cinemas to see for themselves "how bad" the movie really was, causing ticket sales to surge rapidly. The box office tracking site Mao Yan reported that "Niu Lai" has now earned over 14.9 million yuan, becoming one of this year’s standout performers.
Some social media users hailed the film as a "cure" for the widespread AI-generated content dominating online spaces, praising its "handmade" quality despite the phrase being used ironically to highlight its crude and outdated animation style.
One viewer wrote on Weibo, "This is a seriously crafted work," while another called the film "a truly handmade creation" and dubbed it "the biggest dark horse" of the summer movie season.
The film's popularity also linked to China’s stock market because the word "cow" is associated with a bullish market in Chinese. One user posted that if the stock index hits 4,000 points the next day, they would go to support the movie at the cinema.
Originally, "Niu Lai" was a small project created by only two people over five years, who wrote, directed, voiced, and produced the film. Reports say they are a parent-child team. The film is thus entirely different from China’s high-budget animations with beautiful visuals and grand technical effects popular in recent years.
As demand to watch the film increased, many cinemas added showtimes even though the movie lacked official posters. Some cinema staff even drew their own posters to attract audiences.
However, "Niu Lai"’s success was not welcomed by all. The state media Beijing News criticized cinemas for potentially "losing audience trust" if they continue increasing showings of low-quality films, urging them to act as "gatekeepers" and reject clearly substandard movies instead of letting such films gain widespread popularity.
An anonymous film industry expert said "Niu Lai" stands out for being "bad in nearly every imaginable aspect," including story, special effects, and other elements. Yet this contradiction ironically attracted viewers’ curiosity.
He also said the film's success might embarrass the Chinese film industry because its popularity stems from being "so bad it’s good" rather than quality. Meanwhile, other viewers see the "Niu Lai" trend as a playful reaction to the dominance of high-budget movies and AI-generated content online today.