Recently, the animated film “The Arrival of the Cow” unexpectedly surged in popularity due to its rough production quality, leading to a continuous increase in box office revenue. As of now, the film has surpassed 63.07 million yuan (RMB). The director of the film recently announced the release of a sequel titled “The Arrival of the Cow 2: Setting Sail” scheduled for next year.
On the evening of September 13, Director Xinyu Meng of “The Arrival of the Cow” posted on the Sina Weibo account “Grateful Cow Arrival” with the title “The Arrival of the Cow 2: Setting Sail – A New Journey Begins!” In the post, he expressed, “Once, we set off for a dream. Now, standing at a new starting point, we set sail again. The winds and waves may be greater than imagined, and the world ahead will be even broader. But no matter how far we go, the Cow Arrival will never forget the direction of the initial journey.”
“The Arrival of the Cow 2: Setting Sail” is positioned as a 3D animated film, with promotional materials emphasizing themes of “growth, courage, and setting out on dreams again.” The sequel will continue to be directed and written by Xinyu Meng and his mother Sun Lefang, handling core creative aspects such as voice acting without outsourcing to professional teams, maintaining the low-cost and entirely handcrafted production approach of the first film.
However, the Weibo post has since been deleted and is inaccessible.
According to the Lighthouse Professional Edition and Maoyan Professional Edition, the screening period for “The Arrival of the Cow” has been extended until October 4. The box office revenue for “The Arrival of the Cow” has reached 63.07 million yuan to date.
Earlier reports indicated that the creative team behind “The Arrival of the Cow” is preparing a new work titled “High Sheep,” described as “a heartwarming story about growth, dreams, and courage.”
“The Arrival of the Cow” quietly premiered on August 5 with 251 screenings on the first day, attracting an audience of 122 people and earning 3420 yuan in ticket sales. Over the following days, daily box office revenue steadily declined, with a cumulative total of 77,110 yuan and only 278 total viewers by August 14 at 4:00 pm.
On social media platforms, criticism of the film’s low-quality modeling, jerky animations, repeated scenes, and glitchy visuals spread widely. On August 14, “Cow Arrival box office at 7352 yuan without hitting 10,000” trended as the top search term, leading to a growing public backlash. Curious audiences flooded cinemas with the mentality of “let’s see just how bad it is.”
On August 15, “The Arrival of the Cow” appeared in 72 Weibo hot searches, earning 717,000 yuan in box office revenue in a single day, more than two hundred times the first-day earnings. The following day, the daily box office revenue surged to around 6.09 million yuan, a significant increase from the previous day. Around noon on the 17th, the cumulative box office revenue of “The Arrival of the Cow” surpassed 10 million yuan, after which its box office earnings continued to soar.