China's First Dragon Seal AI Theatrical Film Sets Release Date: 'Sanxingdui: Future Past' Opens October 23

On September 27, Bona Film Group announced the release schedule: 'Sanxingdui: Future Past' will enter theaters nationwide on October 23. The film runs 100 minutes, and all characters are original digital creations; no digital replicas of real actors were made. According to the filmmakers, this is the first theatrical film in China made with AI technology to obtain a public screening license from the National Film Administration.

The plot ties the inscribed symbols on Sanxingdui bronzes to a super AI. In the setup, the symbols on the bronzes conceal binary code that did not belong to that era. Three thousand years later, humanity hands judgment over to algorithms and falls into a global crisis; an archaeologist discovers that the key to unraveling the predicament is precisely those seven symbols. The bronze sacred tree, the bronze standing figure, and the mask with protruding eyes will appear on screen in hyper-realistic form. The court of the ancient Shu royal capital and large-scale sacrificial scenes are reconstructed through artistic imagination, and the story ultimately extends into the future universe.

The film is produced by Bona Film Group's Boyue Xingji Lantu (Chengdu) and Boyue Xingji Lantu (Shanghai), with production completed at the Boka Film Cloud Studio. AI handles image generation and execution, while the creative initiation, selection, and judgment are handled by Bona's AIGMS team. The team says that over the past two years it has produced more than 1.2 million base images, and the entire film went through more than a hundred iterations. The film made an appearance during the Cannes Film Festival, where an international concept trailer was released.

One License Matters More Than a Hundred Demo Reels

AI short films have been flooding short-video platforms for more than a year, but previously not a single one had made it into theaters. The difference is that short videos are judged by clicks, while theatrical films are judged by licenses, by a finished 100-minute film, by the Digital Cinema Package of the distribution version and screening verification.

Bona has walked this road for three years. At the end of 2023, the company established the AIGMS production center, listing AI film and television as one of the group's four parallel business segments. Its previous sci-fi short drama 'Sanxingdui: Future Revelation' surpassed 200 million views across the internet and won several international sci-fi short film awards. Its self-developed short-drama generation platform 'Bole One-Click AI Short Drama' and vertical application platform 'Boka Cloud Studio' have opened applications to industry creators, and the company also has 'Unplanned: Operation Guanghan' and the animated 'Chinese Strange Tales: The Raksha Sea Market' in its pipeline.

Handing a 100-minute film to a generative pipeline is a completely different matter from handing it a 15-second video. The project team notes that the model occasionally produces images that are gorgeous enough but do not fit the plot, and the director needs to readjust according to narrative requirements; lens focal length, depth of field, axis, and staging still have to be controlled by people. After generation, DI color grading and Dolby Atmos production were not skipped either.

Features and Short Dramas Are Being Rewritten at the Same Time

Just as the theatrical side has set its release date, satellite TV has already taken a step ahead. Anhui TV has aired the AIGC period mid-length drama 'The Peach Blossom Pool', and 'Later Journey to the West' entered Hunan TV's prime time slot at the end of August. TVB aired the AI short drama 'Corporate Slave Survival 101' and paired it with an IP business model. Xi'an Film Studio is building a vertical large model for the film and television industry and launching XR cinemas. Enlight Media has launched an internal AI tool platform, with more than a dozen self-developed tools used in project development, film and television publicity, and media management. H&R Century's explorations cover scripts, storyboards, production, post-production, and marketing.

Overseas streamers moved earlier and more quietly. Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said at the July investor call that about 300 of the company's titles had used generative AI in their production pipelines, covering everything from planning to post-production. The documentary 'The American Experiment' includes about 17 minutes of AI-enhanced footage, and its production speed was about twice that of traditional methods, at about half the cost.

The cost calculation comes from CICC: AI directly targets the film and television industry's two major pain points—trial-and-error costs and communication costs—while production accounts for 70% to 80% of the industry's total costs. Virtual production bases can cut set construction costs by up to 85%, and the original-concept modeling cost for digital human actors by 80%. Kuaishou Kling AI's figure is that production costs can drop to one-tenth of traditional methods and time can be shortened by about 60%. The 'China AI Film and Television Development Report (2025-2026)' believes that AI has covered the entire process of creativity, shooting, post-production, marketing, and operations, and that six main business models have initially been proven out.

What's Cheap Is Execution, Not Creation

Lower costs do not mean lower barriers. The team behind 'Sanxingdui: Future Past' stresses that after generated imagery is completed, the film still has to go through color grading, Dolby Atmos, Digital Cinema Package creation, quality control, and screening verification, with every step following the requirements of the distribution version. The decision about whether a shot should be used is still made by people.

Shenzhen, Shanghai, Beijing, and other places are attracting AI film and television companies and creators through industrial clusters, computing power, and rent support. This approach is very similar to the path taken by the new energy vehicle, solar, and robotics industries: first provide parks, funding, and infrastructure, then gather companies and talent, and finally form a complete chain.

If nothing unexpected happens, more films will carry the AI-made label next. What really matters is not the label, but whether, after October 23, audiences walking into theaters will feel those 100 minutes were worth it. Technology has already brought execution costs down; the remaining question is still the old one: is this story worth telling, and is anyone willing to listen?