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Aftermath of 'Cow Lai': New series suffers disastrous failure
Báo Tuổi Trẻ
30/08/2026
08:00
"Niu Lai" impacts the Chinese box office: 5 new films fail miserably, 4 films record zero revenue, and the highest-grossing film fails to reach 60,000 RMB. According to Sina, after more than 20 consecutive days in theaters, "Niu Lai" continues to maintain a daily box office revenue of over 1 million RMB.
Ngưu Lai, phim trị giá 200 USD, vừa đánh bại Obsession, trở thành tác phẩm có lợi nhuận cao nhất thế giới sau khi thu về gấp 25.000 lần kinh phí - Ảnh: Weibo
The cumulative total revenue has now exceeded 52 million RMB and is expected to eventually surpass the 60 million RMB mark. With a return on investment reaching thousands of times, "Niu Lai" has truly become a massive "bargain." The reason "Niu Lai" achieved such great success is not due to excellent film quality or compelling content. On the contrary, the reason why "Niu Lai" was widely sought after by audiences lies primarily in its poor quality and the fact that the film itself is not actually good.
"Niu Lai" is a low-budget Chinese animated film. The overall production quality is quite rudimentary. Precisely because of this, the film was widely discussed by word-of-mouth, thereby attracting curious viewers to the theaters to see it for themselves. However, whether in the market or among the audience, a rule always exists: after a period of frenzy, fatigue will set in.
Last year, when "Ne Zha 2" caused a sensation, audiences flocked to theaters, while most of the new films released afterward faced box office failure. "Niu Lai" is currently in a similar situation. New films released after this one have not achieved box office success, especially those released on August 27 this year—which were almost "completely wiped out."
Rạp chiếu tự vẽ poster quảng bá Ngưu Lai cũng gây sốt trên mạng xã hội - Ảnh: Weibo
On August 27, five new horror films were released simultaneously in China. Among them, "Gu Cun Mi Zhai" (The Haunted Ancient Village) had the best box office performance, but after more than half a day of release, it only grossed 58,000 RMB, failing to reach the 60,000 RMB mark.
The remaining four films have not even recorded any box office figures, meaning they have not generated any revenue. Five new films, four with zero revenue, and one failing to reach 60,000 RMB. This situation is truly rare in the history of Chinese cinema.
Hiện Ngưu Lai xác nhận sẽ công chiếu tại Singapore vào ngày 1-9. Cụm từ "trạm đầu tiên tại Đông Nam Á" trên poster cũng cho thấy phim sẽ còn có điểm đến thứ hai, thứ ba trên hành trình chinh phục phòng vé quốc tế - Weibo
Perhaps after the "Niu Lai" craze, both the Chinese market and the audience have fallen into a state of fatigue, no longer wanting to go to theaters to watch new films they are unfamiliar with. Of course, there is another reason: Chinese horror films are not a genre that audiences particularly favor.
In the past few years, the Chinese horror film with the best box office performance is still "Yuan Yang Lou Jing Hun" (The Haunted House of Mandarin Ducks), released in 2024, but its revenue only reached about 130 million RMB. In the current era, when successful films frequently reach billions, or even tens or hundreds of billions of RMB, such a performance is very difficult to attract attention.
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