There’s a new Chinese movie that’s so bad it’s good.

The animated feature “Niu Lai,” which follows the story of a calf learning life lessons in a dream sequence, grossed just 7,705 yuan ($1,140) in its first 10 days since releasing on Aug. 5, according to the South China Morning Post. The total number of moviegoers was 12 on its opening day, even though it was released in 245 theaters, according to Jimu News. It’s been critically panned by several outlets in the country, which have described its 3D animation as crude and its dialogue as blunt and obscure.

But over the past few days, the film has attracted a cult following on social media. Several viral posts on Chinese platforms Weibo and Douyin joke about the film’s poor quality. Videos show people unabashedly filming scenes in the theater with their phones. Laughter erupts when a break in dialogue is too long or when a character’s mouth barely moves in a stilted scene.

This cult following online has somehow ballooned into mainstream appeal: On Aug. 16 alone, “Niu Lai” reportedly made over 5.6 million yuan at the box office ($830,466). That’s not bad for a film that only two people wrote, animated and voiced – mother and son Sun Lifang and Xin Yumeng – over the course of five years.

Not everyone in China is thrilled about its redemption arc. State-run outlet Beijing News has openly criticized theaters for even showing “Niu Lai,” comparing it to the 2017 Chinese flop “Pure Heart: Chasing Dreams in the Entertainment Industry,” which similarly inspired online mockery and infamy.

Ironic adoration at the movie theater is a familiar phenomenon in the U.S. In 2022, the Marvel film “Morbius” flopped and attracted an aggressive meme campaign that insisted it was the best film ever made. The fanfare online was so loud that it convinced Sony to reissue the film, and it flopped again.

“Morbius” was mocked online in part because it was a symbol of “Marvel fatigue.” The studio spent millions of dollars on visual effects and Jared Leto, only for audiences to clown it mercilessly and compare it to “slop.”

In comparison, “Niu Lai” is rough-and-the-edges and low-budget, and some online are even lauding it for its imperfect human quality in an age of so-called “AI slop.” Some online are even calling it “human slop” as a way to both commend its originality and critique its appearance.

Praise for the film has recently spread to American social media sites like X, where some are begging for it to be adapted for English-speaking audiences.

American netizens are often fascinated when a Chinese meme or trend breaches the “Great Firewall” of laws and regulations separating the Chinese web from the American web. In 2023, a clip of a beaver passionately speaking in what looked like an epic, Chinese, Pixar-esque movie gained over 23 million views on X. (The clip turned out to be just a standalone short.)

But before you think “Niu Lai” could work in the U.S., the 2025 animated Chinese film “Ne Zha 2,” which amassed roughly $2 billion worldwide, flopped in America this year when it was redistributed by A24.