Sanxingdui: China's First AI Film Earns a Cinema License
Released nationwide on October 23, 2026, the 100-minute AI-made feature is the first domestic theatrical film built with AI to obtain the National Film Administration's public screening permit.
The First AI Feature With a Public Screening Permit
On October 23, 2026 the film Sanxingdui: Future Chronicles opened in cinemas nationwide, described as the first domestic theatrical feature produced with AI technology to obtain the National Film Administration's public screening permit — the licence colloquially called the "dragon label" (source: Xinhua, October 23, 2026). The release was announced for 18:00 nationwide by Bona Film Group, which also disclosed a runtime of 100 minutes (source: International Online / Southern Plus, October 23, 2026). Producers are Boyue Xingji Blueprint (Chengdu) Film Technology and Boyue Interstellar Blueprint (Shanghai) Film Technology, with Vidu from Shengshu Technology providing chief technical support (source: International Online / Southern Plus, October 23, 2026).
The framing matters: this is not a short film or a streaming series. It is a feature that passed the regulatory review designed for conventional theatrical releases and was measured against box-office standards rather than a creative showcase (source: Xinhua, October 23, 2026).
How the Work Was Split Between Machine and Human
The division of labour was stated explicitly rather than left implicit. AI carried the generative and execution work — character generation, scene construction, shot rendering, editing and post-delivery — while creative conception and creative judgement were handled entirely by the human creative team, with Bona's AIGMS team running the process on an industrial-film workflow basis (source: Xinhua, October 23, 2026). The line was drawn in a sentence from the film's producer and supervisor, Qu Jixiang: "Tasks can be handed to AI, but judgement and responsibility cannot be outsourced together" (source: Xinhua, October 23, 2026).
Bona Film Group, listed as 001330.SZ, operates an AIGMS production centre and its self-developed Boka film cloud studio, using a "human-led, AI-executed" model for AI film production; the company has produced and distributed films with cumulative box office above 700 亿元 (source: International Online / Southern Plus, October 23, 2026). The feature's own marketing material frames the result as a reusable AI filmmaking method and the prototype of a "cloud studio" infrastructure (source: International Online / Southern Plus, October 23, 2026).
The Story: Seven Symbols Across Three Thousand Years
Sanxingdui's archaeological heritage supplies the visual foundation. The bronze sacred tree, the large standing figure and the protruding-eye mask are rendered in hyper-realistic imagery, with the ancient Shu royal court and large-scale sacrificial scenes reconstructed through artistic interpretation (source: Xinhua, October 23, 2026). The narrative core is seven ancient Sanxingdui symbols written into the script as a form of "non-linear time imprint" — lying in the archaeological site for three thousand years until humanity hands decision-making to a super-intelligent AI, global systems fall out of order, and the symbols become the only clue to breaking the crisis (source: International Online / Southern Plus, October 23, 2026). The framing is that the answer lies in the past while the crisis lies in the future.
The theme and the production method mirror each other on purpose. The story asks what remains of independent human judgement once decisions are delegated to algorithms, and the making of the film is itself an argument that technology is the instrument while the human story and emotional expression remain the core (source: Xinhua, October 23, 2026).
Two Years, More Than 1.2 Million Base Images
The production scale was disclosed in the official accounts. The creative team spent two years on technical development, producing more than 1.2 million base images and running more than 100 whole-film iterations (source: Xinhua, October 23, 2026). The same accounts describe the pipeline as connecting the complete industrial chain of AI character generation, scene construction, shot rendering, editing and post-delivery, turning AI production from fragmented test footage into a compliant closed loop across a 100-minute theatrical feature (source: International Online / Southern Plus, October 23, 2026).
A special CINITY screening was held in Beijing ahead of the release, attended by more than 300 guests including industry practitioners, critics and members of the public (source: Xinhua, October 23, 2026).
Opening-Day Box Office, Reported Two Ways
The two credible figures on opening day differ, and the difference should be preserved rather than smoothed away. Maoyan data cited by Times Weekly showed 230,000 yuan in cumulative box office as of 19:00 on October 23 (source: International Online / Southern Plus, October 23, 2026). Daily Economic News, citing Maoyan Professional Edition, reported first-day box office above 280,000 yuan (source: Daily Economic News / Maoyan Professional Edition, October 23, 2026). Both are single-day early-evening snapshots, not final totals, and they differ by roughly 50,000 yuan across two readings of the same opening day.
The reasonable reading is not that the film over-performed but that it opened in the six-figure range for a niche AI-made feature — a meaningful signal for the format, and a modest one for the business model. Bona's own disclosure from September stated that its AI film and television business is still at an early stage of development, with the technical path, business model and market acceptance all still requiring continued validation (source: International Online / Southern Plus, October 23, 2026).
The Predecessor Series, and Its Own Discrepancy
The feature grew out of an earlier AI science-fiction short series, Sanxingdui: Future Revelations season one, launched in July 2024 on Douyin (source: Daily Economic News / Maoyan Professional Edition, October 23, 2026). The reach of that series is itself reported two ways: Daily Economic News described cumulative dissemination on Douyin of nearly 200 million views, while Times Weekly put full-network playback at 160 million (source: Times Weekly, October 23, 2026). These are different metrics on different platforms rather than strictly competing numbers, but they are not interchangeable either.
Bona's next AI theatrical film, Plan Unplanned: Guanghan Action, has already begun production (source: International Online / Southern Plus, October 23, 2026).
What the Release Signals
The most defensible conclusion is narrow but real. A domestic toolchain can now carry a full-length, fully AI-produced feature through the theatrical release system, with a licence, a runtime, a box-office number and a pipeline document. Industry commentary frames it as AI filmmaking moving from backstage technical assistance to a public test in front of an audience (source: Xinhua, October 23, 2026). Whether the economics hold is a separate question, and one the company's own September disclosure leaves open. What has changed is the category: the debate is no longer whether AI can make a long film, but what a long film made this way is worth when it faces a paying audience in a cinema rather than a demo reel.