--- title: China’s first all-AI feature film cost $1.5m and has... description: China's first fully AI-generated feature film, Sanxingdui: Future Past, has made about $180,000 in its first four days in cinemas. The film cost more than 10... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/china-s-first-all-ai-feature-film-cost-1-5m-and-has-made-about-180-000-2kwuht3ei twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: China’s first all-AI feature film cost $1.5m and has made about $180,000 | daily.dev og:description: China's first fully AI-generated feature film, Sanxingdui: Future Past, has made about $180,000 in its first four days in cinemas. The film cost more than 10... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/china-s-first-all-ai-feature-film-cost-1-5m-and-has-made-about-180-000-2kwuht3ei og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/2kwUHt3ei.png og:image:alt: China’s first all-AI feature film cost $1.5m and has made about $180,000 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # China’s first all-AI feature film cost $1.5m and has made about $180,000 **[The Next Web](https://daily.dev/sources/tnw)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary China's first fully AI-generated feature film, Sanxingdui: Future Past, has made about $180,000 in its first four days in cinemas. The film cost more than 10 million yuan ($1.5m) to produce, according to studio Bona Film Group. It used AI for all actors, voices and backdrops, with nearly 100 people working on it for over two years. Only four people attended the opening-day screening AFP covered. Bona COO Jiang Defu acknowledged the lukewarm reception, saying 'We are the first to try it', while USC professor Stanley Rosen said the financial loss will compel others to tread more carefully with AI feature films, even as AI-generated short dramas drew over 200 billion views on Douyin in September alone. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How much did China's first fully AI-generated feature film make at the box office? Sanxingdui: Future Past took in about $180,000 in its first four days in Chinese cinemas, according to ticketing platform Maoyan. The film cost more than 10 million yuan ($1.5m) to produce, per studio Bona Film Group. Presales on opening morning were just 80,000 yuan ($11,980), and only four people attended the opening-day screening AFP covered. _Following how AI content performs commercially helps when evaluating AI tools for creative work, a thread daily.dev readers track._ ### What AI tools were used to make the Sanxingdui AI movie? The film used AI for all its actors, voices and backdrops, and was made with ByteDance's Jimeng AI tools according to Caixin. ShengShu Technology also said its Vidu video model provided technical support. Nearly 100 people spent over two years making the film, which China's National Film Administration licensed as an animated feature in April, since no AI-film category existed. _Developers evaluating AI video generation pipelines can follow tool comparisons like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Chinese cities offer subsidies and cheap computing to lure AI film studios](https://daily.dev/posts/chinese-cities-offer-subsidies-and-cheap-computing-to-lure-ai-film-studios-lgczrcqrb) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [China's $16.5B micro-drama industry becomes the world's first mass application of AI-generated video](https://daily.dev/posts/china-s-16-5b-micro-drama-industry-becomes-the-world-s-first-mass-application-of-ai-generated-video-gs4xmybrl) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [How Chinese short dramas became AI content machines](https://daily.dev/posts/how-chinese-short-dramas-became-ai-content-machines-osua4wjzy) · MIT Technology Review · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Google DeepMind bets $75M on AI’s future in Hollywood with A24 deal](https://daily.dev/posts/google-deepmind-bets-75m-on-ai-s-future-in-hollywood-with-a24-deal-6aj5x2dsq) · TechCrunch · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#genai](https://daily.dev/tags/genai), [#ai-video-generation](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-video-generation) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/china-s-first-all-ai-feature-film-cost-1-5m-and-has-made-about-180-000-2kwuht3ei) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"China’s first all-AI feature film cost $1.5m and has made about $180,000","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/china-s-first-all-ai-feature-film-cost-1-5m-and-has-made-about-180-000-2kwuht3ei","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/china-s-first-all-ai-feature-film-cost-1-5m-and-has-made-about-180-000-2kwuht3ei"},"datePublished":"2026-10-28T11:33:19.909Z","dateModified":"2026-10-28T15:00:08.584Z","description":"China's first fully AI-generated feature film, Sanxingdui: Future Past, has made about $180,000 in its first four days in cinemas. 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The film cost more than 10 million yuan ($1.5m) to produce, per studio Bona Film Group. Presales on opening morning were just 80,000 yuan ($11,980), and only four people attended the opening-day screening AFP covered. Following how AI content performs commercially helps when evaluating AI tools for creative work, a thread daily.dev readers track."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"What AI tools were used to make the Sanxingdui AI movie?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"The film used AI for all its actors, voices and backdrops, and was made with ByteDance's Jimeng AI tools according to Caixin. ShengShu Technology also said its Vidu video model provided technical support. Nearly 100 people spent over two years making the film, which China's National Film Administration licensed as an animated feature in April, since no AI-film category existed. Developers evaluating AI video generation pipelines can follow tool comparisons like this on daily.dev."}}]} ```