Physix Frontier · News Briefing Card (TMTPost · Oct 23, 2026)

First AI Theatrical Film 'Sanxingdui' Opens, Presales Only 144K Yuan

KEY FACTS

On October 23, 'Sanxingdui: Future Past', the first AI hyper-realistic film in China to receive a public screening license, hit theaters nationwide.
The film's production cost reached the tens of millions of yuan level; the team generated over 1.2 million base images and involved nearly 100 people.
Before release, total presales across two platforms were about 144,000 yuan, and Beacon predicted a first-day box office of 311,000 yuan.
After the release date was set, Bona Film Group's stock price hit the daily limit up at one point, then nearly hit the limit down on October 22, falling more than 20% from its high.
Volcano Engine launched a 4K enterprise trial of Seedance 2.5, and Kling 4.0 went live on October 15.

KEY DATA

About 144,000 yuanTotal Presales

311,000 yuanPredicted First-Day Box Office

2.169 million yuanPredicted Total Box Office

Tens of millions of yuan levelProduction Cost

PHYSIX OBSERVATION

Capital bought into the AI film concept, but audiences voted with their feet; a first-day forecast of only 310,000 yuan shows technical gimmicks don't give people a reason to buy tickets. It's a more pragmatic path for model vendors to pivot to embedding into professional production workflows, but for AI feature films to truly monetize, it will ultimately come down to story and finished quality.

Source: TMTPost report