New Animated Movie Makes Over 1000X Its Budget in Just 5 Days

Dalian Jingyuan Culture Film and Television Media Published Aug 20, 2026, 7:28 PM EDT Chris is a Senior News Writer for Collider. He can be found in an IMAX screen, with his eyes watering and his ears bleeding for his own pleasure. He joined the news team in 2022 and accidentally fell upwards into a senior position despite his best efforts. For reasons unknown, he enjoys analyzing box office receipts, giant sharks, and has become known as the go-to man for all things Bosch, Mission: Impossible and Christopher Nolan in Collider's news division. Recently, he found himself yeehawing along to the Dutton saga on the Yellowstone Ranch. He is proficient in sarcasm, wit, Photoshop and working unfeasibly long hours. Amongst his passions sit the likes of the history of the Walt Disney Company, the construction of theme parks, steam trains and binge-watching Gilmore Girls with a coffee that is just hot enough to scald him. His obsession with the Apple TV+ series Silo is the subject of mockery within the Senior News channel, where his feelings about Taylor Sheridan's work are enough to make his fellow writers roll their eyes. Sign in to your Collider account This article covers a developing story. Continue to check back with us as we will be adding more information as it becomes available.This may be the weirdest story you read all year. A movie can become a hit for lots of reasons, excellent word of mouth, quality direction, epic action, amazing visuals. The Chinese animated movie Niu Lai has none of those. The extraordinarily low-budget production has been mocked online for its rudimentary 3D animation, with viewers describing its characters as everything from “ugly” to “eerie.” And somehow, all that ridicule has transformed what initially looked like a catastrophic flop into one of China’s strangest viral sensations. Niu Lai has staged an astonishing box office turnaround after earning only around 10,000 yuan ($1,480) during its first 10 days in theaters following its August 5 release. According to Chinese box office tracker Maoyan, there were individual days when the movie made as little as 200 yuan — roughly $30. But then it was memed. The one thing that guarantees eyes on a movie. Mockery. Online ridicule and increasingly viral word of mouth sent audiences rushing to cinemas, with Niu Lai subsequently earning 8.2 million yuan ($1.2 million) in a single Monday, selling almost 300,000 tickets that day. Its cumulative gross had reached 17.1 million yuan ($2.5 million) by the time of the Associated Press’ report, representing one hell of a turnaround from those almost-empty early screenings.