A recently released Chinese animated film, Niu Lai, is slowly becoming a box-office sensation after being dubbed as the “worst movie of 2026” on social media. The film, which was released in China on August 5, has collected more than Rs 20 crore, as per Maoyan, Chinese ticketing platform.

Niu Lai or The Cow is Coming, tells the story of a newborn calf, who has always lived in the shelter of his mother and herd. That changes when he follows skylark and immerses into a long dream sequence which makes him confront life and death.

As poetic as the story sounds, the film’s animation is filled with simplistic computer graphics, stiff characters and a lot of awkwardness in the dialogues which ultimately has been confusing movie goers about its plot. The film’s outdated, low-tech animation style turned into a memefest as social media reactions started ridiculing its existence, right from calling it an “amateur student project” to labelling it as being “worse than AI”.

The bad publicity ended up working in the film’s favour as it is being placed alongside bigger releases in China’s box office collections. Made on a budget of roughly between $47 to $200, the 86-minute film saw a dull start in the beginning but picked up after clips of the film went viral on social media. A section of viewers appreciated the human effort that went into making the film, as opposed to it being generated by AI.

It is made by a mother-son duo, Xin Yumeng and Sun Lifang, over a period of five years, as the two are credited for being the writers, directors and voice-actors of the film. As per reports, Niu Lai, released without a trailer or a promo and the only promotional material unveiled by the makers was a minimalist poster designed using ink wash painting.

Published - August 19, 2026 02:32 pm IST