A Chinese animated film, Niu Lai, has experienced a surreal reversal of fortune, with its daily box office surging over 300-fold in a single day. The film's production company is based in Dalian, and a local cinema there has confirmed that it has been instructed to remove Niu Lai and will no longer screen it. A staff member at a Dalian cinema told a news outlet, "No, that film is so terrible, why do you want to see it? Dalian isn't allowed to show it, because it was made by Dalian people, and it might damage the city's image."

Box office data shows that in its first nine days of release, Niu Lai earned just over 7,000 yuan, with a total of only about 280 viewers, setting a record for the lowest box office performance for an animated feature this year. According to a financial news report, as of the morning of August 16, based on data from the ticketing platform Lighthouse, Niu Lai had accumulated a total box office of 2.567 million yuan. Furthermore, Lighthouse's data predicts a final total box office of over 5.98 million yuan. The prediction from the competing platform Maoyan is even higher, estimating a total box office of up to 18.37 million yuan.