Given the success of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, you'd think it would take another star-studded, big-budget film to knock it off its throne. Well, in China, all it took to outshine Tom Holland was an animated bull made on a personal home computer. The record-breaking film that made Spidey yesterday's news across China is called Niu Lai.
The Chinese animated film reportedly took five years to make and was created by a mother-and-son team with no previous animation experience. Initially, it earned so little at the box office that its theatrical run looked destined to disappear almost immediately.
Instead, people discovered it was terrible. Then everybody wanted a ticket.
Niu Lai, also known as The Arrival of the Ox, has become an unlikely Chinese box-office phenomenon after social media users began sharing clips of its extremely rough animation and unusual creative choices. What started as mockery quickly turned into curiosity, memes, and a goldmine for revenue.
Building a reputation as the 'worst' film ever, film fans had to see it to believe it. Niu Lai reportedly earned only around 7,000 yuan during its first 10 days, but has now surpassed 20 million yuan, or roughly $2.9 million (£2.1 million).
Hollywood spends millions trying to manufacture word of mouth. Niu Lai seems to have achieved it by being 'unbelievably terrible'. In a battle between a spider and an ox, it looks like the ox wins this time.
'Niu Lai' Went From Box-Office Disaster to Viral Curiosity
Released in China on 5 August, the 86-minute animation follows a weak calf named Niulai who struggles to stand after birth. Much of the story unfolds in a dream, where the calf befriends a leopard, experiences loss, battles danger, eventually leads his herd, and discovers the courage that lets him stand when he wakes.
As a concept, the story sounds like a wholesome plot straight out of Pixar's back pocket. Visually, however, it has sparked strong opinions.
Reportedly, the film was made using basic tools, including a second-hand computer and SketchUp, software better known for architectural and interior-design modelling than feature animation.
Neither filmmaker Xin Yumeng nor his mother, Sun Lifang, had professional animation experience before beginning the project. That distinction became rather noticeable once audiences started seeing footage.
'I watched it... It's so bad,' one Reddit user wrote. 'The creative choices are bizarre and it drags on forever.'
Another viewer compared its aesthetic to 'a fake screenshot from a PS1 creepypasta'.
So Bad, China Decided It Had to Be Seen
Rather than killing the film, however, those reactions gave it life. Clips circulated, and audiences laughed through screenings. Soon, memes multiplied.
Cinema employees allegedly even began drawing their own promotional posters after official marketing materials proved difficult to find.
It wasn't long before Niu Lai entered that rare cinematic territory where criticism stops being a deterrent and becomes the main advertisement channel.
'It's bad bad, but it also has so bad it's good moments,' one Redditor wrote. Another perfectly described the trajectory as: 'bomb, meme, cult, profit'.
Some viewers have compared the phenomenon to The Room, Tommy Wiseau's famously disastrous film that evolved into a beloved cult experience.
Except Niu Lai has another wonderfully bizarre advantage.
Its Chinese title roughly translates to 'The bull arrives', which some investors have reportedly interpreted as an auspicious reference to a bull market. One Reddit user claimed certain cinema-goers were even buying seats arranged to form the Chinese character for 'bull'.
Cinema has officially entered its stock-market-superstition era.
The Internet Has Unexpectedly Fallen for the People Behind It
Yet amid all the jokes about animation quality, another reaction has emerged: affection. The film is ultimately a five-year passion project created almost entirely by a family duo.
'I would pay to go watch it just out of respect for such dedication from a mother to a son's dream,' one Reddit user admitted.
Another said the mother-and-son story 'warms my heart, so it's not all bad'.
There is also something remarkably human about watching an imperfect handmade film gain traction amidst the flawless AI dynasty.
One commenter captured the appeal best, arguing that amid endless hyper-perfect digital content, something this visibly homemade 'gains its own attractiveness'.
Niu Lai began as a movie barely anybody watched and somehow became the movie people bought tickets to, precisely because everybody said they shouldn't.
In an industry obsessed with perfect visuals, cinematic universes, and billion-dollar intellectual property, a calf rendered on a second-hand computer has somehow charged straight into the box-office conversation.
Turns out, you do not always need to be good to become a hit. Sometimes you just need to be unforgetta-bull.
