A warning for Tran Thanh

"The Four Guardians" has surpassed many competitors in terms of revenue, but Tran Thanh is losing to himself. The figure of 325 billion VND is far below the director's expectations, making the work a regrettable step back after a series of previous box office records.

The 2025 Tet movie season officially ended with much noise and controversy. Although it could not maintain its form in the final stage, The Avengers Quartet Tran Thanh still win with total revenue now exceeding 320 billion VND.

However, the project faced a wave of criticism, even being considered the worst film in the career of the director born in 1987.

The film's revenue was also much lower than Tran Thanh's previous works, like a wake-up call for him to reconsider his direction in the next projects.

Wrong choice?

Almost every project of Tran Thanh leaves a lot of noise when launched and The Four Panthers is no exception. From the time the movie released the poster, trailer until the time it was shown in theaters, it created fierce debates from the audience.

Many people think that Tran Thanh was quite smart when he decided to change direction, choosing a humorous story, suitable for the Tet atmosphere and also his forte.

The Avengers Quartet has been making a lot of noise since the trailer was released.

The director himself has shared many times about his plans to make a movie. comedy, telling a story that makes the audience laugh out loud, not inferior to the works of Stephen Chow.

Furthermore, all three of his previous films were dramas, often exploiting family conflicts, so the decision to "change the wind" was reasonable.

However, the results were not at all as expected.

If Tomorrow shows Tran Thanh's improvement after many years in the director's chair, The Four Panthers again revealed many limitations in the way of arranging situations and handling stories.

The most regrettable point is that Tran Thanh has been rolling around with comedy for many years but still cannot make the audience laugh in the film. Many of the humorous details are forced, mainly to "catch the trend" of young people, making the story disjointed and lacking in depth.

132 minutes is not too long for a movie. But in the second half, The Four Panthers inevitably makes the audience bored because the story is rambling, lacks highlights and the emotional flow is broken.

Some people criticized Tran Thanh for rushing the film. From the time the crew started filming until the official trailer was released, it was only about 4-5 months.

The project had a short filming and post-production time to complete in time for the Lunar New Year release. Therefore, the script was probably not invested in as much as Tomorrow took years to perfect.

Some opinions say that Tran Thanh is too hasty.

If only Tran Thanh had slowed down a bit and not put too much emphasis on releasing movies continuously every Tet season, the situation might have been different.

If the script was invested in and polished more carefully, The Four Panthers sure to convince and bring more laughter to the viewers.

Tran Thanh lost to himself

Revenue is a number that doesn't lie. This Tet season, Tran Thanh surpassed many competitors but is losing to himself.

Remember two years ago, Mrs. Nu's house also controversial in content but quickly surpassed Godfather to become Vietnamese movies best-selling song of all time. After that, Tran Thanh surprised everyone again when he continued to break his own record with Tomorrow – is currently the highest-grossing Vietnamese film in history with over 550 billion VND.

However, The Four Panthers could not help Tran Thanh create a hat-trick but was a regrettable step backward.

The film quickly broke the record for the highest opening in our country's history, then gradually slowed down when it passed the 250 billion VND mark, then lost its top spot on the chart, continuously being surpassed by competitors at the box office.

Despite Tran Thanh and his crew's efforts to promote it by all means, The Four Panthers cannot regain lost ground.

It's even more painful when surpassing Tran Thanh are two inexperienced directors with many limitations in their first films: Thu Trang (movie The Kiss of a Billion Dollars ) and Hoang Nam ( Ghost Lamp ).

Tran Thanh won against his opponent but lost to himself.

In fact, the revenue of 325 billion VND of The Four Panthers is still a dream number for many Vietnamese directors. Up to now, the history of Vietnamese films has only had six works surpassing the 200 billion VND mark, of which four were directed by Tran Thanh.

However, 325 billion is certainly not what the crew wanted, and is even further from the 1,000 billion that Tran Thanh expected.

Failure of The Four Panthers This is a timely warning and also a great pressure for Tran Thanh, forcing him to consider more carefully in choosing topics and writing scripts for future projects.

If he continues to repeat the old formula, Tran Thanh cannot avoid losing the trust of the audience, and then shaking his position as the "king" of the Tet box office, just like Le Hoang and Hoai Linh, who once made waves on the screen, then "evaporated" from the market.

Tran Thanh’s stumble also partly shows that the tastes of Vietnamese audiences are increasingly unpredictable. They are no longer easy-going with superficial scripts and stories lacking depth, but have a more rigorous view of domestic cinema.

Therefore, filmmakers cannot be subjective but must always be alert and careful in the fierce box office race.

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