A relatively unknown Chinese animated movie that did poorly at the box office has surprisingly made itself a trending movie of the season and for reasons that probably even the creators of the film didn’t foresee. Niu Lai, translated as The Cow Is Coming in English, which is an 86-minute long animated film about a newborn calf going through a bizarre process of coming of age, has suddenly become viral through the internet after being laughed at for its weird animation and storyline.
Chinese animated film goes from flop to superhit
The movie, which was released on August 5, did not even earn about 10,000 yuan ($1,480) during the first 10 days. There were reports of making as little as 200 yuan ($30) in a day. It all changed once clips from the film went viral on the internet around August 14. The initial mockery soon became an intrigue for everyone to test if the movie is as weird as said on the internet.
The simple computer graphics and the stiff movements of the characters and the strange voice acting were easily spotted by the viewers. While some viewers found it similar to a student project, others went ahead to call it “worse than AI” and the potential “worst movie of 2026”. But, as soon as the clips went viral on several social networking sites, the film saw major jump in the box office collections turning this big disaster into a superhit film in theatres.
From box office flop to viral hit
For those who did not know about the film, started watching this movie in theatres. On August 15, the daily box office collection of the movie shot up to 717,000 yuan, causing the cinema owners to boost the showings of the film. By August 17, the Niu Lai movie had accumulated 17.1 million yuan ($2.5 million) box office, ranking among the top 10 highest grossing Chinese animations of 2026, as per ABC News report.
On August 18, the film continued its unexpected run at the box office. It recorded a real-time collection of 2.3 million yuan (approx $341,213), briefly moving up to fourth place on China’s domestic box office chart and even overtaking Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The film is now competing closely with major Hollywood releases, including Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey and Tom Holland’s superhero film in terms of ticket sales, as per Manila Bulletin.
It is not any different from the reactions on social media as well. On the Douban website, which focuses on culture, there are more than 650 plus reviews posted by the audiences. Viewers stated that the film was “unusually terrible but eye opening” and “symbolic of the new trend of internet trolling”. The most frequently mentioned line was “must see for Chinese investors” in stock market owing to the movie’s title which translated to “the bull is coming”.
One user on the platform wrote, “In an era so obsessed with AI, are the creators using a hand-drawn, low-quality art style to express a sense of returning to one’s true self? The possibility is extremely high. After all, both the antique-style poster and the mysterious synopsis hint at the film’s depth, clues left by the director for the audience.”
A film made by just two people
What is even more astonishing is the story of how this film came to be. Red Star News reported that Niu Lai has been put together by Director Xin Yu Meng in collaboration with his mother, Sun Lifan, over a period of five years. This duo is claimed to have taken care of all aspects of the production from writing to directing, producing, animation, editing, and voicing.
What is interesting is that this movie has been made on an incredibly low budget of roughly 30,000 yuan (approximated $4,450). The company which produced it and which has a registered capital of 100,000 yuan (approx $14,835) is reported to have had no experience in the film industry till 2021. Considering that this film was made under such circumstances, making it to 17 million yuan ($2.5 million) is nothing short of miraculous.
The poster that fooled audiences
Further adding to the strange story of the film is its marketing campaign or the absence thereof. All one could find as an official advertisement is a beautifully designed poster in the style of traditional Chinese ink-wash painting. This poster created a completely different picture compared to the crude animation one would later see on the screens.
The popularity of the movie led to some creativity on the part of the theatres. They started making their own posters with drawings of a calf and slogans such as “Come on over if you like the weird stuff” and “No refunds.”
The unique success of this movie has resulted in some unprecedented milestones being set in the Chinese film industry. This is possibly the first movie that has managed to become an instant hit because the audiences wanted to watch it simply out of curiosity as to how bad it is.