A crudely animated, homemade movie about a baby cow has become China's most unlikely box-office smash, generating merchandise and memes and a national conversation about the joyful rejection of slick marketing and artificial intelligence by a younger generation.

Made on a shoestring budget and with hand-drawn posters and a reported cost in the thousands of dollars, "The Bull Comes," or "Niu Lai" in Chinese, grossed the equivalent of more than $4 million as of Thursday.

In China's daily box-office rankings, it placed immediately behind "Spider-Man: Brand New Day," a Marvel Studios sequel that reportedly cost some $225 million to produce.

"Niu Lai," which tells the story of a newborn calf, his mother and a leopard cub, flopped in its first week, grossing just over $1,000, according to local media reports.