Move over, Spider-Man: ‘Bad’ Chinese animation Niu Lai takes on The Odyssey at the box office

What began as an obscure animated release has become one of the most unusual box-office stories of the summer, with Niu Lai drawing audiences in China despite being widely mocked for its primitive animation.

Niu Lai turns into a massive box office hit in China

The 86-minute film, which follows a young calf and a skylark through a dream-like story, arrived in Chinese cinemas on 5 August with little indication that it would attract significant attention. It had no trailer, publicity campaign or promotional tour, and its initial theatrical performance was negligible.

During its first 10 days, the film took only 7,700 yuan, equivalent to roughly $1,070, or £842 at the exchange rate cited in reports. Fewer than 300 cinema-goers were said to have purchased tickets across the country.

Its fortunes changed after footage began circulating on Chinese social media. Rather than recommending the film, many users shared clips to ridicule its rudimentary computer-generated imagery, awkward character movements and unconventional storytelling. The criticism, however, created a new reason to watch it: audiences wanted to judge for themselves whether the film was genuinely as poor as online commentary suggested.

That curiosity has transformed Niu Lai into a genuine theatrical success. The film has crossed 14.9 million yuan, around $2.1 million, according to Chinese ticketing platform Maoyan, placing it in the same box-office conversation as much more heavily financed productions.

Why is it being compared to The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day?

The contrast with its Hollywood competitors is particularly striking. Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey and Tom Holland-led Spider-Man: Brand New Day arrived with major studios, established franchises and extensive global marketing behind them. Niu Lai, by comparison, was produced on an extraordinarily modest scale.

Niu Lai is not remotely close to either film in total worldwide revenue. Its significance is that it has overtaken or begun competing with them in specific Chinese box-office measurements, despite being an extremely small production.

Niu Lai: The latest reports put it at about 17.1 million yuan ($2.5 million) in China. It reportedly earned 8.2 million yuan ($1.2 million) in a single day, an extraordinary turnaround from its first 10 days, when it made only about 10,000 yuan.

The Odyssey: The Christopher Nolan epic opened in China on 14 August and has so far made about $35.9 million (around 247 million yuan) there, according to Box Office Mojo. Its opening was about $28.4 million (roughly 195 million yuan).

Spider-Man: Brand New Day: The Tom Holland-led film has performed on a completely different scale, reaching about $210.7 million (roughly 1.44 billion yuan) in China after 19 days.

Niu Lai has earned only around 7% of The Odyssey's current Chinese gross and roughly 1% of Spider-Man: Brand New Day's.

Niu Lai has reportedly been beating Spider-Man on individual days and competing with The Odyssey in China's daily box-office rankings, rather than matching their overall theatrical grosses. A report by Cinema Express specifically says that Niu Lai has earned more than Spider-Man: Brand New Day in a daily comparison.

There is also a remarkable contrast in their releases. According to Variety and AP, The Odyssey opened across more than 20,000 Chinese screens, including around 90% of IMAX locations. Niu Lai, meanwhile, began with almost no conventional marketing and fewer than 300 ticket buyers in its first 10 days.

Niu Lai is earning a fraction of the Hollywood blockbusters' overall Chinese grosses, but its astonishing daily surge has seen the tiny animation outperform them on individual days, turning it into an unlikely box-office phenomenon.

The team behind Niu Lai

The film was reportedly made over five years by Xin Yumeng and Sun Lifang, a mother-and-son team who handled much of the creative and production work themselves. Its handmade appearance has subsequently become part of its identity, with some viewers viewing its roughness as a refreshing alternative to increasingly polished digital animation.

The phenomenon has also raised questions about the way social media can influence theatrical performance. Negative commentary that might ordinarily damage a film instead gave Niu Lai a level of exposure its creators had not been able to generate through conventional advertising.

The film people went to see because it was ‘bad’

That unusual premise has proved remarkably effective. As online fascination continued to grow, cinemas began giving the film greater visibility, allowing a production that initially appeared destined for obscurity to compete for attention with some of the year's biggest releases in China.