A crudely animated, homemade movie about a baby cow has become China's most unlikely box office smash, generating merchandise and memes and a national conversation about the joyful rejection of slick marketing and artificial intelligence by a younger generation.
Made on a shoestring budget and with hand-drawn posters and a reported cost in the thousands of dollars, "The Bull Comes," or "Niu Lai" in Chinese, grossed the equivalent of more than $4 million as of Thursday.
In China's daily box office rankings, it placed immediately behind "Spider-Man: Brand New Day," a Marvel Studios sequel that reportedly cost some $225 million to produce.
"Niu Lai," which tells the story of a newborn calf, his mother and a leopard cub, flopped in its first week, grossing just over $1,000, according to local media reports.
Then, with a boost from social and local media, the movie's wonky animation, awkward storytelling and discussion of its unlikely creators – an amateur animator and his supportive mother – made the movie a viral sensation.
At a recent packed screening in Beijing, bursts of laughter rang out before the movie started.
"I can't believe the theatre is full!" one audience member shouted, triggering cheers and laughter from the crowd.
"Other than envying how much money this piece of junk has made, I have no complaints," said a popular movie blogger on Weibo, a social media platform. The embrace of the movie has become a kind of inside joke for the young, the blogger added.
"And I say - let them laugh. There aren't that many things left that we can joke about."
'Don't tell me what to do'
The DIY project tapped into a kind of rebellious mood of the moment, said Remo Zhu, a Chinese director.
"It's a mood of ... don't tell me what to do, to watch or eat – I'll decide that for myself," he said.
"In a packed theatre full of strangers, it becomes a genuinely interactive, immersive communal experience."
The movie tells the story of a frail and exhausted newborn calf who struggles to stand up. It is a tale of friendship, courage and loss as the herd faces danger on its journey to find greener pastures. Spoiler: It also may – or may not – be a dream.
The dialogue is slow. Action sequences are clunky. The animation is heavily pixelated.
"It's not even a movie," said one reviewer on Weibo. "To call it bad is an insult to bad movies."
Sparking frenzy
Movie or not, it has become a cultural touchstone and sparked a frenzy of people trying to cash in on its unlikely appeal. There are Niu Lai toys, Niu Lai-masked robots, social media memes and cosplays.
Companies with the word "bull" in their names also saw an increase in their share prices on Monday, drawing an unusual warning from China's central bank against meme stock investing.
"Going to the movies for a bit of fun is harmless enough, but ... pinning one's hopes on the word 'bull' is not rationality – it is wishful thinking," a journal run by the People's Bank of China said on Tuesday.
Aspiring animators hoping to repeat the low-budget flick's success might also be out of luck.
"These are usually low-probability events: hard to predict and impossible to replicate deliberately," said Liang Xia, an animation producer based in Shanghai.
"More often, they are driven by a swell of public emotion rather than the content itself. The content may simply serve as the spark that ignites."