China's 'The Bull is Coming' Tops 20 Million Yuan as Crude Animation Fuels Cult Hit
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Aug 20
China's 'The Bull is Coming' Tops 20 Million Yuan as Crude Animation Fuels Cult Hit
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Aug 20
Summary
More than 20 million yuan ($3 million) has poured into “The Bull is Coming” since its Aug. 5 release, turning a barely promoted children’s film into one of China’s standout box-office performers.
Fewer than 300 tickets sold in its first 10 days, but online mockery of its pixelated, “disaster-level” visuals quickly drew younger viewers who embraced it as authentic in an A.I.-saturated era.
Xin Yumeng, a 34-year-old first-time director, spent five years making the film with his mother; the coming-of-age story follows a calf named Niu Lai through a dream sequence.
Cow-mask screenings, fan-made memes and plush toys have spread the craze beyond theaters, and even Hefei police and former Global Times editor Hu Xijin have joined the phenomenon.