Gloomy before Tet - Quang Ninh Electronic Newspaper

Box office revenue last week declined due to a lack of outstanding projects, while old films have gradually lost their appeal. Many foreign films that were once popular in their home countries have failed when released in Vietnam, creating a gloomy box office picture before Tet.

Last week, box office revenue showed signs of decline due to the lack of outstanding projects being released. Old movies also lost popularity due to the low number of screenings and ticket sales.

Many films that were once popular in Korea and Hong Kong also became "flops" in Vietnam because they could not sell tickets and were released in theaters in a sluggish atmosphere.

Box office dismal

Topping the revenue charts of Box Office Vietnam (independent box office monitor) last week was still 404 run now

Over the weekend, the Thai horror comedy earned over VND3.8 billion from over 42,000 tickets sold in about 2,900 screenings. This achievement decreased about 55% compared to last week (VND8.3 billion), but still helped the film reach a total revenue of over VND95 billion and very likely will soon surpass the VND100 billion mark.

Victory of 404 run away now was a surprise at the year-end box office, contributing to affirming the position of Thai films in the Vietnamese market.

Coming in second place is horror movie Indonesia Mother's Ghost with more than 3.6 billion VND. The film has no stars, and the content is quite old. The script tells about strange and creepy events that happen in the main character's family, connected to supernatural forces that have existed for many generations.

Indonesian horror film Ghost of Mother unexpectedly surpassed Vietnamese films at home.

Job Mother's Ghost Rising to second place shows that horror movies are still a favorite dish of Vietnamese audiences. Many people are willing to spend money to watch horror movies without caring whether the content is attractive or not.

Meanwhile, projects that once caused a stir in Korea and Thailand such as Fire God, Hell Breaker but did not create a good effect when released in Vietnamese theaters.

Fire God (International title: Firefighters ) currently ranks fifth on the list of highest-grossing Korean films of 2024. Breaking Hell (International title: The Last Dance ) set a record as the highest-grossing Hong Kong film of all time.

Unfortunately, the films have not yet received attention from Vietnamese audiences despite the distributor's aggressive promotional strategy. Fire God achieved revenue of more than 1.4 billion VND Breaking Hell just over 1.3 billion VND. Both did not make it into the top 5. Box Office Vietnam .

Similarly, horror movies Zombie Tower Hong Kong's "The Last of Us" also hit theaters without much success, earning just over 350 million VND.

This is not too difficult to understand. Because Hong Kong movies are gradually losing their position in the international arena. While before, many Korean blockbusters were also big hits at home but had less impressive box office performance in our country such as Siege in the Air, The Female Pilot, Fallen Paradise …

Image from the Hong Kong movie Tower of Zombies.

Vietnamese movies fall in rank

In its fifth week in theaters, Sister-in-law no longer holds the second position on the rankings of Box Office Vietnam which fell to third place with more than 1.8 billion VND at the weekend box office, down 60% compared to last week (4.5 billion).

Presently Sister-in-law Although it no longer maintains its appeal, it has still achieved revenue of more than 107 billion VND, which is a good sign for the crew.

Two Vietnamese films Kaleidoscope: Get the Ghost to Pay and Rain on Butterfly Wings still in theaters but with meager box office revenue. Both had low screenings, under 50, and did not make it into the top 10 of Box Office Vietnam .

Presently Kaleidoscope: Get the Ghost to Pay grossed only over 5.9 billion VND, making it one of the most regrettable projects of Vietnamese cinema in the past year.

Rain on Butterfly Wings is not a commercial film so it is difficult to sell tickets. The project belongs to the art-house genre (art) which is picky about the audience, and was not promoted widely so it only earned more than 550 million VND.

However, this number is still quite low compared to Inside the golden cocoon (1.4 billion VND) or Glowing Ashes (4.1 billion VND).

Rain on Butterflies has yet to make a positive impact at the box office.

The remaining positions in the top 5 of Box Office Vietnam two turns cartoon To be: Cats return the favor (1.3 billion) and Mufasa: The Lion King (VND1.1 billion). However, both had low revenue, a sign that the box office was in a gloomy state before Tet.

There are no notable projects released this week. Distributors are mainly re-screening old films to increase revenue, waiting for the Tet movie competition to officially begin.

This year, there are three Vietnamese film projects scheduled to be released on the first day of Lunar New Year 2025 (January 29th of the Gregorian calendar), respectively: The Four Panthers (Directed by Tran Thanh) Love the wrong best friend (Nguyen Quang Dung, Diep The Vinh) and Billionaire Kiss (Thu Trang).

All three were made by professional, experienced crews and featured famous actors, so they are expected to achieve high revenue upon release, creating a vibrant Tet movie season with many surprises.

Besides three Vietnamese films, foreign projects are mainly animated films such as: Paddington: Paddington Bear , Thousand Pound Mission , Knight Goat and 7 royal treasures …

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