China's first fully AI-produced theatrical film "Sanxingdui: Future Past" grossed 1.18 million yuan in its first four days of release

Four days after its release, the box office stood at 1.18 million yuan. The market performance of "Sanxingdui: Future Past," the first domestic full-process AI theatrical film, has poured a bucket of cold water on the booming AI film and television craze.

Before its release, the stock price of producer Bona Film Group hit the daily limit repeatedly, as the capital market used real money to express its enthusiasm for the "first AI film." After release, the average audience per screening was just 1.1 people, the attendance rate was as low as 1.1%, and the predicted total box office was no more than a little over 2 million yuan. Film company executives may be rethinking: is the AI film path still viable?

"Sanxingdui" indeed exposes many flaws of AI films. Static images such as the bronze sacred tree in the film are stunning in texture, but once motion and performance begin, a sense of incongruity rushes in: the characters' expressions are dull, with a kind of "deadpan" look of "calm as water, unruffled"; the dialogue has an obvious "AI flavor," with lines that, whenever a character opens their mouth, tend to go "not... but rather..."; the plot jumps around chaotically and has been mocked as "like several different group assignments stitched together."

The success of AI in short dramas and comic dramas cannot simply be transplanted to theatrical films. Short dramas and comic dramas sell fast pacing, strong reversals, and instant gratification; they do not require rigorous character arcs, a complete worldview, or delicate emotional buildup. AI's shortcomings happen to be concealed, while its advantages of greatly reducing costs and increasing supply speed match this business model well.

The movie is completely different. The big screen is a magnifier of flaws; problems that can be glossed over on a small phone screen are multiplied once they reach the cinema screen. Moreover, watching a movie requires the audience to pay a relatively high cost in money and time, which raises expectations and lowers tolerance.

When a film asks the audience to pay the same ticket price as for a live-action film and spend the time cost of going out and sitting for two hours, yet delivers only a "technical demonstration"-level result, the audience's disappointment and even anger is a completely natural reaction.

Of course, the failure of one film cannot prove that AI's path in the film industry has been blocked. In fact, AI has long been an indispensable tool in the film production process. Hollywood and the domestic film and television industry have already widely applied AI in many links such as special effects, color grading, sound, editing, and scriptwriting. A-list international film festivals such as Shanghai and Cannes also pay close attention to and even embrace AI.

It can be foreseen that as AI technology continues to iterate and develop, it will be entirely possible in the future to use AI to make a feature film that is not inferior to today's excellent theatrical films, and the film industry will ultimately very likely be transformed and even reshaped by AI. But once the shock of new technology and the novelty wear off, competition will eventually return to "content" itself—from sound films to color films, from stunt shots to computer special effects, and now to AI, a review of the successive technological revolutions in film history shows that this has always been the case.

Just as today, whether there is a good story, a group of convincing characters, or whether there is moving emotional expression or an interesting idea will still, to a considerable extent, determine the success or failure of a film in the future. When film practitioners use AI to reduce costs and increase efficiency, they might as well think again about whether the money and time saved by using AI should be reinvested in the places more worth polishing, or think about how to make AI not only empower those basic links but also play a role in more key links such as scriptwriting and character development.

The same principle applies to all industries. When people re-adapt to a new generation of technology and regard it as part of daily life, technology itself should no longer be the "protagonist." No matter when, the core competitiveness of a product, a company, or a model essentially still comes from the more fundamental and more core "content."

Source of this article: Shangguan News Risk Disclosure and Disclaimer

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