Sanxingdui Future Past has grossed 1.68 million yuan

Key Takeaways

The gross	Maoyan, as cited by Caijing on Tuesday, Nov. 3, put Sanxingdui: Future Past at 1.678 million yuan and 57,000 admissions through Monday, Nov. 2. Cartoon Brew, citing a box-office dashboard, put it near 1.68 million yuan.
The cost	Producer Quji Xiaojiang has put the budget above 10 million yuan. Chief executive Jiang Defu told Caijing the spend was on the order of 10 million yuan. Neither figure is a line from an audited release.
What was AI	Caijing reported that AI generated all of the images and some of the sound. Lianhe Zaobao, citing Xinhua, the Beijing News and AFP, said people still made the creative and artistic calls.
The permit	Bona and those outlets describe the film as the first AI feature with a China Film Administration public screening permit. The permit document itself was not in the reports.

Sanxingdui Future Past, which Bona Film Group describes as China's first AI feature with a theatrical permit, had grossed 1.678 million yuan through Monday, Nov. 2, Caijing reported, citing Maoyan. The science-fiction film opened on Friday, Oct. 23. Its makers say the budget was above 10 million yuan.

What Sanxingdui Future Past grossed

The total moved up from a very small start, and the trackers do not use one clock. Lianhe Zaobao reported on Sunday, Oct. 25, citing Maoyan Pro, that the gross was 900,000 yuan as of 10 a.m. that day. Advance sales were about 140,000 yuan, Zaobao said, against nearly 11,000 opening-day screenings. Zaobao, citing Agence France-Presse, said four people were in one Beijing auditorium on Friday, Oct. 23.

21st Century Business Herald, in a Nov. 2 story citing Dengta professional data, put the take after about a week at 1.495 million yuan, including 45,000 yuan on Friday, Oct. 30. Dengta's own forecast, the story said, was a lifetime gross of 3.066 million yuan. At a producer share of about one third, the paper calculated roughly 1.01 million yuan, short of a cost above 10 million.

Caijing, in a story carried on the Herald's site on Tuesday, Nov. 3, cited Maoyan for a later reading: 1.678 million yuan and 57,000 admissions through Monday, Nov. 2. It said average attendance per screening peaked at 1.2 people and was 0.3 on Oct. 26 and Oct. 27. Cartoon Brew, citing the China Movie Box Office dashboard, read roughly 1.68 million yuan, which it converted as $253,000, through Monday, Nov. 2, the 11th day. Brew said a precise second-weekend total was not available and that the weekend drop looked like 60 percent or more. It put the most optimistic public forecasts near 3.07 million yuan.

Above 10 million yuan, and two bigger comparisons

The budget is a range, not a single audited number. Zaobao reported that producer Quji Xiaojiang put the cost above 10 million yuan, and that a live-action version might have cost 800 million to 900 million yuan. Jiang Defu, Bona's chief executive and the film's executive producer, told Caijing before release that the actual spend was on the order of 10 million yuan, and that a traditional production would have cost at least 300 million yuan.

Those two hypotheticals do not match. Both describe a traditional film that was never made, not the cash this one spent. The Herald's Nov. 2 story said Quji had told reporters the company did not expect a box-office return on this film. Caijing later reported her view that one title cannot decide the future of AI cinema, and that Bona should treat the release as a step: finish review, distribution and exhibition, then choose what to do from the audience's response.

Bona's own quarter was already weak. Caijing, citing the report disclosed after the market on Friday, Oct. 30, said revenue for the first three quarters was 767 million yuan, down 21.07 percent from a year earlier, and the net loss was 246 million yuan, 77.85 percent smaller than the loss a year earlier. The shares fell by the daily limit on Monday, Oct. 26, closing at 5.54 yuan, Caijing reported. They rose by the limit again on Monday, Nov. 2, which Caijing tied to a rally in AI short-drama stocks, not to this film.

Images from a model, judgments from people

Caijing described a 100-minute feature whose images, and some of the sound, were generated by AI. The chief technical support, it said, was Vidu, a model from Shengshu Technology, and frames from different versions of the model remain visible on a large screen. Zaobao, drawing on Xinhua, the Beijing News and AFP, said a team of nearly 100 people worked for two years, produced more than 1.2 million base images and revised the film more than 100 times, while creative concepts and artistic decisions stayed with people.

Caijing's crew account agrees on the method. AI took the place of camera and lighting departments, it reported, but writers, a director, art and editing were still required. Quji told Caijing that where a generated shot would not hold, the editors used montage.

The "first" label is the company's and the press's, not a certificate reproduced in these stories. Zaobao called it the first AI feature to receive a public screening permit from the China Film Administration. Caijing called it the first theatrical feature to hold that permit with AI used through the production, and reported that Jiang said the administration issued a content-review approval on April 10, 2026, the same day as another Bona project. The permit text was not attached.

The thin audience has ordinary explanations as well as a technical one. Zaobao reported that Liu Haibo, a professor at Shanghai University's Shanghai Film Academy, pointed to the limited pull of AI images, the lack of known actors and thin promotion. It reported independent director Zhang Jun's view that viewers will not buy a ticket only because a film was generated by AI. Caijing said Bona has already named more AI films, including one called Guanghan Action (广寒行动). The final gross, and which of the two live-action comparisons was realistic, is not in the November tallies.