Sanxingdui: Future Past, kolossal cinese mixed with science fiction and the ancient fantasy, was a film of considerable importance not only for the local market: it is a relatively large production created entirely through generative artificial intelligence, with costs not negligible but far lower than those of a comparable feature shot in real life and post-produced by hand. The production company Bona faced, however, a bad surprise upon its debut at the Chinese box office.
In China, an AI-made blockbuster debuts; the box office verdict on a historic test
Directed by Yue Ming, the blockbuster Sanxingdui: Future Past from Bona is notable for being entirely crafted via generative artificial intelligence by a team of about seventy people, staying at their computer screens yet firmly determined to defend the commitment required to tame AI and coax it into producing what you saw in the trailer. The outlook for this kind of project was positive. China is experiencing an explosion of AI-driven entertainment content, thanks to the surge of online “microdrama” series—very short episodic fiction—seemingly two-thirds of which are produced in that manner (per Indiewire). Moreover: Bona had already fired up interest with a microdrama series that introduces the film, bearing the same title and boasting 200 million views. But something did not go as planned.
Upon release, Sanxingdui: Future Past grossed in China only $181,000, a figure insignificant even with a budget of 1,500,000, tight for this kind of film yet not inconsequential. At this point one wonders: is the Chinese audience also wary of an AI-driven production when they must pay to see it? Or did the prologue of microdrama episodes simply undercut the cinematic event’s value? Certainly, Bona does not back down, as work has already begun on another AI-generated project, namely Unplanned Operation in the Cold Moon. Though it may nudge toward a gloomy outlook this morning, there is clearly time to draw final conclusions, and one might assume these investments are not entirely misguided from a marketing perspective, given the online popularity of microdramas.
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