The unlikely viral hit turned brutal reviews into a box-office goldmine.
It was supposed to be a disaster. Instead, a tiny Chinese film made for roughly the price of a nice dinner has turned into one of cinema’s wildest box-office stories.
The Chinese animated film hit cinemas on August 5 after five years of work from mother-son duo Xin Yumeng and Sun Lifang.
Its big debut, however, didn’t exactly come with a standing ovation. Instead, audiences took one look at the animation and promptly declared it some of the “worst” they had ever seen.
Naturally, everyone had to see it
What started as mockery quickly became the film’s best marketing campaign. Curiosity sent people to cinemas to witness the allegedly terrible animation for themselves, while clips and reactions spread across social media.
And then came the truly ridiculous part: the box office.
The film was initially reported to have cost around $1,000 to make. New reports now put the actual budget…$200.
Yes. Two hundred dollars.
Niu Lai has reportedly now earned more than $4.3 million in ticket sales. That means the film has made more than 15,000 times its production budget.
At this point, calling it a success feels like a bit of an understatement.
The numbers put Niu Lai in extraordinary company. Curry Barker’s Obsession, made for around $750,000, recently became one of the most profitable films ever after pulling in approximately $500 million.
Directed by Xin Yumeng and written by Sun Lifang, Niu Lai could now reach even more audiences, with international releases reportedly being considered.
Which means the mother-son duo may soon have an entirely new problem: figuring out what to do with all that money.
At this rate, the film has already made back its budget more than 21,000 times over.
It seems the joke is very much on everyone who called it a flop.
