The indie horror hit Obsession set a major record this year by becoming the most profitable movie in the world relative to its budget. Surprisingly, holding this record turned out to be short-lived for the film, thanks to the unforeseen success of a new release in China.
Niu Lai is an animated film that was created by a mother and son with a budget equal to just $200. Initially, it dropped in Chinese theaters on Aug. 5 and barely made a splash, but then something unexpected happened. Screenshots of the movie’s rough animation and strange-looking characters started being shared online, turning it into a meme. This made more people interested in seeing the full version of Niu Lai on the big screen out of curiosity.
Obsession Loses Its Record as Most Profitable Film
Now, Niu Lai has made RMB 29 million, which is about $4.3 million USD. That’s a haul of about 20,000 times its $200 budget. It means that the animated film is more profitable than Obsession, which grossed about 600 times its $750K production budget with over $460 million earned worldwide. With Niu Lai still playing in theaters, that number could continue to grow. It’s on track to make even more money through merchandising as well, as tie-in toys are now in the works thanks to the movie’s viral popularity and box office success.
Nobody expected the attention that the movie is now receiving. There hadn’t been any money spent on promotional materials. When the movie started picking up traction upon going viral, many theaters had even resorted to drawing up their own posters to advertise the movie.
China Wins Again After Topping Last Year’s Box Office
This is another big win for China over Hollywood at the box office for the second year in a row. Last year, the Chinese film Ne Zha 2 surpassed the $2 billion mark, becoming the only film released in 2025 to reach the major milestone. The closest runner-up was Disney’s Zootopia, which made it to 1.8 billion.
Niu Lai was written by Sun Lifang and directed by Xin Yumeng. The mother-son duo worked on the project for over five years. Along with purchasing second-hand equipment, they utilized a modeling program called SketchUp to animate the characters rather than specialized animation software. Sun even wrote the soundtrack and personally performed the theme song, and the two provided the voiceovers for the characters. It was produced by Dalian Jingyuan Culture Film and Television Media, a former interior design company.
The animated movie follows Niu Lai, a timid calf who goes on a journey in an extended dream sequence where he encounters the many dangers of life. After learning lessons about courage and responsibility, Niu Lai evolves to become a brave protector. It is essentially a coming-of-age story with positive messaging, though its crude animation has unintentionally turned it into partly a comedy as well. This is similar to stateside movies like The Room becoming a phenomenon, seen as something that’s “so bad, it’s good.”
Currently, Niu Lai is only available in Chinese theaters, but it is likely to be released in the U.S. and other regions soon enough, given its current success.
- Release Date
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August 5, 2026
- Runtime
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86 minutes
- Director
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Xin Yumeng
- Writers
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Sun Lifang
Cast
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Xin Yumeng
Male characters (voice)
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Sun Lifang
Female Characters (voice)
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