Sanxingdui: Future Past, a Bona Film Group sci-fi thriller made with AI, has earned an estimated $180,000 in its first days despite 10,000-plus screenings.
Sanxingdui: Future Past, billed as the first fully AI-generated feature film to get a wide theatrical release in China, has drawn weak ticket sales since it opened on 23 October, despite more than 10,000 scheduled screenings. The Next Web, citing Maoyan data, reports an estimated $180,000 in its first four days, while The Hollywood Reporter, citing AFP, puts the total at about $198,000. Against a budget of more than 10 million yuan (about $1.5 million), early ticket sales amount to roughly 12 percent of the cost.
The 100-minute sci-fi thriller from Bona Film Group follows an archaeologist who finds symbols carved into Sanxingdui bronzes that link an ancient civilisation to a future run by superintelligent AI. Its actors, voices and backdrops were generated by AI, and nearly 100 people reportedly worked on it for more than two years. China's film regulator approved it for public screening in April and classified it as an animated feature because no AI category existed; AFP said only four people attended the opening-day screening it visited.
Producer Jiang Defu told the Chinese outlet Yuli that the film was still an important experiment: "We are the first to try it, the first to get a theatrical release permit and the first to be tested by the audience." One moviegoer said the quality still falls short of human production, and USC film scholar Stanley Rosen told Fortune that the losses will likely make others more cautious about AI feature films. Other AI features have had only limited releases so far, including India's Love You and Malaysia's Pirate Queen: Zheng Yi Sao, and a US release, Gods Don't Give Gifts, is scheduled for 4 December.
