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A crudely animated, homemade movie about \u200ba baby cow has become China\u2019s most unlikely box-office smash, generating merchandise and memes and a national conversation about the joyful \u200crejection of slick marketing and artificial intelligence by a younger generation.<\/strong><\/p>\n Made on a shoestring budget and with hand-drawn posters and a reported cost in the thousands of dollars, \u201cThe Bull Comes,\u201d or \u201cNiu Lai\u201d in Chinese, grossed the equivalent of more than $4 million as of Thursday.<\/p>\n A crudely animated, homemade movie about \u200ba baby cow has become China\u2019s most unlikely box-office smash, generating merchandise and memes and a national conversation about the joyful \u200crejection of slick marketing and artificial intelligence by a younger generation.<\/p>\n Made on a shoestring budget and with hand-drawn posters and a reported cost in the thousands of dollars, \u201cThe Bull Comes,\u201d or \u201cNiu Lai\u201d in Chinese, grossed the equivalent of more than $4 million as of Thursday.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t believe the theatre is full!\u201d \u200bone audience member shouted, triggering cheers and laughter from the crowd. \u201cOther than envying how much money this piece of junk has made, I have no complaints,\u201d said a popular movie blogger on Weibo, a social media platform. The embrace of the movie has become a kind of inside joke for the young, the blogger added.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I say \u2013 let \u200bthem laugh. There aren\u2019t that many things left that we can joke about.\u201d The DIY project tapped into a kind \u200bof rebellious mood of the moment, said Remo Zhu, a Chinese director. \u201cIt\u2019s a mood of \u2026 don\u2019t tell me what to do, to watch or eat \u2013 I\u2019ll decide that \u200cfor myself,\u201d \u2060he said. \u201cIn a packed theatre full of strangers, it becomes a genuinely interactive, immersive communal experience.\u201d<\/p>\n The movie tells the story of a frail and exhausted newborn calf who struggles to stand up. It is a tale of friendship, courage, and loss as the herd faces danger on its journey to find greener pastures. Spoiler: It also may \u2013 or may not \u2013 be a dream. The dialogue is slow. Action sequences are clunky. The animation is heavily pixelated. \u201cIt\u2019s not \u200beven a movie,\u201d said one reviewer on \u200bWeibo. \u201cTo call it bad is \u2060an insult to bad movies.\u201d<\/p>\n Movie or not, it has become a cultural touchstone and sparked a frenzy of people trying to cash in on its unlikely appeal. There are Niu Lai toys, Niu Lai-masked robots, social media memes \u200band cosplays.<\/p>\n Companies with the word \u201cbull\u201d in their names also saw an increase in their share prices on Monday, \u200bdrawing an unusual \u2060warning from China\u2019s central bank against meme stock investing.<\/p>\n \u201cGoing to the movies for a bit of fun is harmless enough, but \u2026 pinning one\u2019s hopes on the word \u2018bull\u2019 is not rationality \u2013 it is wishful thinking,\u201d a journal run by the People\u2019s Bank of China said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Aspiring animators hoping to repeat the low-budget flick\u2019s \u2060success might also \u200bbe out of luck. \u201cThese are usually low-probability events: hard to predict and impossible to \u200breplicate deliberately,\u201d said Liang Xia, an animation producer based in Shanghai.<\/p>\n \u201cMore often, they are driven by a swell of public emotion rather than the content itself. The content may simply serve \u200bas the spark that ignites.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n