火柴人

Low-budget ‘Niu Lai’ emerges as a surprise hit with its ‘disaster-level’ animation, grabbing millions in China as curiosity rivals Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’_我的网站

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While Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey and a string of high-profile domestic and international releases compete for audiences in China's fiercely contested summer movie season, an obscure animated film has emerged as one of the period's most unexpected box-office stories.
Niu Lai, a low-budget original animation with rudimentary character modeling and an unconventional, abstract storyline, hit Chinese theaters on August 5 but earned just 7,169 yuan ($995) during its first nine days. But its cumulative box office had surpassed 2.5 million yuan as of press time.
Niu Lai opened with little of the machinery normally associated with a commercial theatrical release. It had no star-studded cast, major promotional campaign or significant pre-release buzz. Its opening-day box office was just over 3,400 yuan ($474), with fewer than 300 moviegoers watching it during its first nine days, according to Maoyan.
That changed on August 14, when a social media topic about its nine-day box office of just over 7,000 yuan went viral. Rather than praising the film, many users were drawn to its unusually rough production and two-person creative team.
Terms such as “the most basic theatrical film,” “disaster-level” and “worse than AI-generated animation” circulated online, with some netizens saying they could “hardly believe it was a Chinese animated film released in 2026.” Others said they wanted to see it simply to find out “just how bad it could be.” Some even joked that stock market investors were heading to theaters after wishing for a “bull market” to arrive soon.
The online buzz has also sparked a wave of fan-made content, with netizens inserting the film's little bull character into posters for various classic movies. The playful edits have further fueled its visibility on social media, turning Niu Lai into an internet meme and a shared online joke.
The film's viral attention also spawned jokes that Nolan might not have expected Niu Lai to become an unlikely rival to The Odyssey, which opened in China on August 14 amid intense competition for summer moviegoers.
Its rise stands in sharp contrast to the conventional logic of China's increasingly competitive theatrical market, particularly this summer, when a string of high-profile releases, including The Odyssey, Once Upon a Time in the Middle East and Spider-Man: Brand New Day, are competing for audiences.
"Niu Lai has been driven by curiosity and social currency, with audiences essentially paying a premium for the feeling of being part of a trending phenomenon. Curiosity can generate genuine audience interest, but social-media-driven hype is essentially a bubble built on traffic," Zhang Peng, a cultural researcher and associate professor at Nanjing Normal University, told the Global Times.
"When cinemas add screenings for Niu Lai, they may appear to be responding quickly to market demand, but in reality, they are giving in to online buzz rather than making decisions based on the quality of the film itself," Zhang said.
According to Zhang, The Odyssey's strong reception and high theater attendance in China demonstrate that high-quality content, combined with a distinctive and hard-to-replicate theatrical experience, remains at the heart of the cinema business.
"Niu Lai, meanwhile, serves as a warning that speculative filmmaking and curiosity-driven marketing should not be mistaken for a replicable formula, as relying on such tactics offers little positive value for the long-term development of the film industry," he said.
"A fleeting viral frenzy can never replace a solid creative foundation. Content quality remains the enduring value that will sustain the film industry over the long term," Zhang said.
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B |     　　8月26日，国新办举行“开局起步‘十五五’”系列主题新闻发布会，工业和信息化部相关负责人介绍全力抓好“十五五”规划实施、加快推进新型工业化有关情况。

C | 　　发布会上介绍，“十四五”期间，我国制造业规模和质量不断迈上新台阶。制造业规模持续增长，规模以上工业增加值年均增长5.9%，全部制造业增加值由2020年的26.5万亿元增长至34.7万亿元，占GDP比重保持在25%左右。产业发展向新、向智、向绿成效显著，比如，工业机器人年产量从21.8万套上升至77.3万套，累计建成504家卓越级智能工厂，国家绿色工厂产值占制造业总产值比重提升至22%。　　(央视新闻客户端 总台央视记者 孙蓟潍 杨子清)。

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