Sanxingdui: Future Past is China’s first fully AI-generated feature film. It took an estimated $180,000 in its first four days in cinemas, to Monday. Ticketing platform Maoyan supplied the figure, Fortune reported. The film cost more than 10 million yuan ($1.5m) to make, its studio, Bona Film Group, has said.
It opened on Friday with more than 10,000 screenings scheduled, according to AFP. Presales that morning stood at 80,000 yuan ($11,980), AFP reported. Maoyan forecast total takings below 150,000 yuan. Only four people were at the opening-day screening AFP attended.
The first to get a permit
The film uses AI for all its actors, their voices and its backdrops, according to AFP. Nearly 100 people spent more than two years making it, Bona told the agency. The story follows an archaeologist who finds symbols carved into Sanxingdui bronzes, according to the Global Times. The symbols link an ancient civilisation to a future run by superintelligent AI.
China’s National Film Administration licensed it for public screening in April, Caixin reported at the time. Regulators listed it as an animated feature, because they had no category for AI-generated films. Caixin reported that it was made with ByteDance’s Jimeng AI tools.
On Tuesday, ShengShu Technology, Vidu’s developer, said its Vidu video model had provided technical support for the film. It made the claim in a press release issued under the name GensPI.
Bona’s response
Jiang Defu is Bona’s chief operating officer and the film’s producer. He acknowledged its lukewarm reception in an interview with Chinese film outlet Yuli, AFP reported.
“We are the first to try it, the first to get a theatrical release permit and the first to be tested by the audience. I think that is not easy at all.” Jiang Defu, Bona Film Group, to Yuli
AI-generated short videos already draw large audiences in China. On Douyin, AI-generated short dramas had more than 200 billion views in September alone, AFP reported. Chinese cities have also been subsidising AI film studios, and China’s AI microdrama makers now license real faces.
Stanley Rosen is a University of Southern California professor who studies Chinese film. He told Fortune that audiences accept AI in short films but remain sceptical of it in feature films.
“The financial loss of Sanxingdui: Future Past will compel others contemplating using AI for feature films to tread more carefully.” Stanley Rosen, University of Southern California, to Fortune
Hollywood studios are already using Chinese AI models, as China’s lead in AI video tools grows. An AI-generated science fiction feature, Gods Don’t Give Gifts, is due for US release on 4 December, AFP reported.