AI-Made Chinese Sci-Fi Film Has Earned an Estimated $198,000 at the Box Office
A Chinese science-fiction film made with artificial intelligence has taken an estimated $198,000 at the box office, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The film is called Sanxingdui: Future Past. It runs 100 minutes and draws on archaeological finds from the Sanxingdui civilisation, an ancient culture in south-west China. The story follows an archaeologist who must save a future world enslaved by AI, where super-intelligent machines have spread across the globe and humanity has handed control to algorithms.
It is described as the first feature-length AI-generated movie to be widely released in China. The production company behind it is Bona Film Group, whose chief executive is Jiang Defu. The production budget was 10 million yuan, about $1.5 million. The yuan is China's currency.
The film opened with more than 10,000 opening-day screenings, meaning cinemas across the country scheduled it in that many showings on its first day. Even so, early ticket sales came to about 12 percent of the budget, the Hollywood Reporter said.
Box office is the money cinemas collect from ticket sales. It is usually the first public measure of how a film is doing, and it is watched closely because a film's budget sets the amount that ticket money has to cover before the producers are paid back in full.
Ticketing data in China comes from platforms such as Maoyan, which tracks sales as films play. Early figures can change as more days of sales are added.
For the wider industry, the release is a test of whether audiences in China will buy tickets for a film made largely with AI tools. The early numbers are the first public answer, and they are small.
