牛来 "The Cow Comes": a low-budget animation that made 4000% profit

Something pure and innocent as a mother-son duo animation project of 5 years became a hit despite little marketing. While Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey cost $250m to make, and Spiderman: Brand New Day was $225m, 牛来 or "Cow Come" had no such budget. It still raked in 11m yuan and counting upon its release earlier in August. BBC news article by Koh Ewe reported - https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g4r0mrmlpo

(This video says the end credits song for the movie "The Cow Comes" was reportedly composed and sung by the 60-year old mother herself.)

It went viral for its poor quality animation, and was made into a meme by viewers, saying they'd rather view human slop than AI slop. Cinema-goers knew what they were getting into when they saw hand-drawn posters of the movie, stating "该片纯粹喜剧，无内涵。拒绝退票！" meaning "Purely comedic with no context. No refunds!"

This project showed there was little boundaries hindering creativity of artists who wanted to publish their work. While the issue can also be that it lowered the standards of films or animations, it is a wholesome project that brought joy (and maybe some frustration) to viewers.