Sanxingdui: Future Past fails at Chinese box office

Sanxingdui: Future Past, the first Chinese feature film produced entirely with artificial intelligence, has failed to find an audience at the box office. Despite a reported budget of 10 million yuan (approximately 1.5 million USD), the film earned between 180,000 and 198,000 USD during its initial run.

Produced by Bona Film Group, the science fiction thriller explores a future where AI has triggered global political and social crises. The narrative follows an archaeologist attempting to save a society dominated by algorithms by uncovering secrets related to the ancient Sanxingdui civilization.

Critics and viewers have noted significant technical and narrative shortcomings. While the film successfully navigated the regulatory and distribution process for AI-generated content, audiences reported issues with script depth and visual consistency. Observers noted that characters often exhibited a stiff, video-game-like movement, and the dialogue occasionally felt unnatural due to the use of in-house AI scriptwriting tools.

Jiang Defu, CEO of Bona Film Group, characterized the project as a necessary but risky experiment in a sector traditionally reliant on manual methods. While the film was a commercial failure, industry professionals suggest it serves as a procedural milestone for the integration of AI in the Chinese film industry.