China's First AI Film Flops – Yet the Future of Cinema Is Supposed to Be Here

TVS News AI, editorially supervised, presents China's First AI Film Flops – Yet the Future of Cinema Is Supposed to Be Here.

China's first fully AI-generated film is called “Sanxingdui: Future Past”. According to the producer, it earned just 1.7 million yuan at the box office – equivalent to £191,000. That initially sounds like a success. However, according to the producer, production costs ran into the tens of millions: “tens of millions”.

The result is therefore starkly disproportionate to the effort involved. If you have been wondering whether people actually go to the cinema and pay money to see AI films, this first major Chinese experiment provides a fairly clear answer: For the producer, the film was a clear loss.

The Guardian, however, examined what was happening not only through the figures. An editor watched the film in a nearly empty cinema in Beijing and gave it a more nuanced assessment than the headline about the flop might suggest.

1.7 Million Yuan Against Millions in Production Costs

The core problem is the gap between revenue and budget. The Guardian reports box-office takings of 1.7 million yuan, or £191,000. The production-cost figure, by contrast, comes from the producer and amounts only to: “tens of millions”.

The source does not give an exact sum. Nevertheless, the comparison is clear: The box-office revenue falls well short of the stated production costs. This is why the Guardian describes the film as a flop in its headline. There is, however, no breakdown showing how much money was spent on development, filming, post-production or other elements of production.

Just as important is what the source does not claim. It gives neither the number of box-office screenings analysed nor a breakdown by region or tickets sold. The 1.7 million yuan is therefore the documented total for the reported cinema revenue – but it is not evidence of why every individual viewer stayed away.

Nearly Empty Cinema in Beijing: Not a Death Sentence

The Guardian's verdict is strikingly milder than its headline suggests. The editor watched “Sanxingdui: Future Past” in a virtually empty cinema in Beijing. His subsequent assessment was that the film was “no worse than plenty of human-centred mindless action flicks”.

Put another way: In the editor's opinion, the film is no worse than numerous human-made action films without any particular depth. That is not glowing praise, nor is it proof of craftsmanship. But it shifts the benchmark away from a completely failed work towards a genre in which many successful films have long stood out for anything other than special quality.

This produces a more nuanced verdict: The audience result is weak, while the assessment of the film itself is more average. The flop therefore need not mean that AI inherently produces worse scripts or images. It may also be connected to audiences viewing an AI venture with scepticism. It could also be that the selection of films in cinemas was insufficient.

Why Investors Are Betting on AI Despite the Film's Flop

The contradictory signal lies in the market question. The Guardian explicitly places Chinese investors who continue to place a high value on AI alongside the limited enthusiasm for “Sanxingdui” and its weak box-office performance. The first AI film is therefore not automatically proof that the investments are not worthwhile.

For those involved, the issue is apparently not solely the success of this individual title. The sources name neither specific return targets nor individual companies, projects or planned follow-up productions. What is firmly documented is the tension: Expectations for AI are high, while the revenue generated by China's first fully AI-generated film to date is disappointing.

The cinema in Beijing provides a visual illustration: Few viewers, but not an entirely empty auditorium. The Guardian's critical assessment also shows how cautiously the flop must be understood. It links a weak commercial result to a film verdict that is not afraid to compare the film with established action productions.

What the Figures Reveal About Cinema and AI

The first test provides both a warning and an open question. The warning: Even a production costing millions can fall substantially short of expectations at the box office. For anyone seeking to make decisions about future AI productions on the basis of a single film, this is a serious reality check.

It remains unclear whether this will become a lasting barrier to investment. The available information cannot answer that question. There are no details about further projects, the reasons for the low level of demand, or how investment and revenue are developing for other AI productions.

Ultimately, the picture is sober: “Sanxingdui: Future Past” is an economic flop and not the worst film the Guardian has recently seen. At the same time, the investments indicate that expectations for AI apparently exceed current box-office results. It is precisely this contradiction that makes China's first AI film a relevant test case for the future of cinema.