The domestic market has just experienced the milestone of many consecutive hundred billion dong films. That is a good sign, but it is too early to conclude that Vietnamese cinema is developing sustainably.
“Peak” and “abyss” are two words that observers have repeatedly mentioned when talking about the domestic film market in recent years. It shows that filmmaking is a glamorous but also harsh playground, something that can bring filmmakers to glory but also make them fall into the abyss in a flash.
If a film wins over the audience, it can bring in hundreds of billions of dong in revenue. On the contrary, many directors have had to sell their houses and give up their artistic career when their brainchild was not well received.
However, the somewhat harsh reality did not continue in early 2025. Instead, Vietnamese cinema witnessed an unprecedented phenomenon, when 4 consecutive works surpassed the hundred billion mark.
From “strong polarization” to “equally divided pie”
2024 will witness the explosion of Vietnamese cinema with total revenue of more than 1,900 billion VND , up 22% compared to the previous year. However, in fact, the above figure only reflects part of the overall picture of the market. Going deeper, it is not difficult to realize that domestic cinema has strong polarization.
While Tomorrow of Tran Thanh and Flip Side 7 Ly Hai's film broke box office records, accounting for more than 54% of total domestic revenue, while many projects only earned a few tens of millions of VND - a figure that is "a drop in the ocean" compared to the investment budget. Not to mention, more than 50% of Vietnamese films fell into a state of heavy loss.
The clear division between big hits and flops shows that the domestic film market is operating under a harsh elimination mechanism. Even at that time, director Khoa Nguyen once told Knowledge - Znews He is concerned that in the next 3 to 5 years, there will be no new directors or producers in the commercial film industry.
However, after a short time, everything changed in an unexpected way. Within a month, which in this case was the Lunar New Year 2025, four consecutive works surpassed the hundred billion mark. Mr. Nguyen Khanh Duong - founder of Box Office Vietnam said this was unprecedented in the history of domestic cinema.
Contrary to last year's Tet movie season, when Tomorrow Tran Thanh's completely overwhelmed, even forcing some competitors to withdraw from theaters ( Mai) accounting for 73.2% of box office revenue during Tet 2024), this year the market "pie" is divided more evenly.
Initially, the cinema chains still assessed Tran Thanh's commercial potential higher, so they gave priority to screenings for him. The Four Panthers . During the first week of Lunar New Year, the number of screenings of this film was 2.6 times higher. Billionaire Kiss and 4.6 times Love the wrong best friend .
With the above arrangement, as of the 4th day of Tet (February 1), The Four Panthers milestone 150 billion VND , becoming the fastest-earning film in the history of Vietnamese cinema, accounting for 75% of total box office revenue during Tet. Meanwhile, Billionaire Kiss just note 23 billion VND revenue.
However, the "plot-twist" happened on the 6th day of the two films' release. Billionaire Kiss suddenly accelerated, while the heat of The Guardian Quartet decreased rapidly. As of now, it can be concluded that The Guardian Quartet ( 331 billion VND ) and Billionaire Kiss ( 207 billion VND ) are sharing the "cake" during Tet.
Not stopping there, the domestic box office continues to be bustling with the participation of new works. Released on the 10th day of Tet, Ghost lights by Hoang Nam has reached the revenue milestone of 100 billion after 11 days of release. Following that, Ancestral home also quickly entered the “hundred billion club”. Notably, Huynh Lap’s work only needed 5 days to achieve the above achievement.
In one month, domestic cinema has had four more hundred billion works. If calculated in 2025, the number will increase to 5 when Sister in law Khuong Ngoc's also did the same thing before. Currently, the number of hundred billion films in the first two months of the year is equal to the total of all of 2024 combined.
What do you see from these impressive revenue numbers?
The stagnation of The Guardian Quartet It was clearly something that no one could have predicted, especially when Tran Thanh's brainchild swept the box office at the beginning of the Lunar New Year. However, after only a few days of release, the film continuously received mixed opinions about its quality, and the crew's reaction afterwards also caused a wave of controversy. It is easy to see that the above-mentioned controversies are part of the reason why the film's money-making speed has clearly slowed down.
Another work that falls into a similar situation is Ghost Lamp . The more controversial it is, the more Hoang Nam cools down his brainchild. According to preliminary calculations, the second week's revenue of Ghost lights down 52% from opening week.
The failures of Tran Thanh and Hoang Nam have created opportunities for other filmmakers to break through, in this case Thu Trang and Huynh Lap. At the same time, the above failures also show that the media has more and more power in determining the success or failure of a work.
Besides, with none of the hundred-billion-dollar films achieving outstanding quality, the recent bustle also shows that sideline commercial factors greatly affect box office revenue.
Easily recognizable, both The Panther Quartet , Billionaire Kiss , Ghost lights and Ancestral home are all sponsored by famous names. Tran Thanh, Thu Trang, Hoang Nam or Huynh Lap already had a large audience, their appeal contributed significantly to the film's revenue.
Not to mention, all four of the above films belong to genres that are easy to sell. If The Panther Quartet , Billionaire Kiss and Ancestral home bold comedy and family, then Ghost lights exploits the spiritual horror genre with cultural elements - a popular film genre recently.
Talk to Knowledge - Znews , Meritorious Artist Bui Trung Hai said that if we only rely on recent revenue, especially the 2025 Lunar New Year film season, to affirm that Vietnamese cinema is on the path of sustainable development, it is still too early.
He said: “Tet is a relatively special release time, when theater systems give up maximum screening slots for Vietnamese films, and at the same time, the audience's demand for movies is very high. Therefore, we can only consider the recent achievements as temporary and need to observe further. In addition, issues such as film promotion and seeding trends currently play too important a role, sometimes overshadowing the quality of the work.”
The director also commented that if filmmakers follow popular genres such as comedy, family, or horror, it will be difficult to help Vietnamese cinema develop sustainably.
“Audience preferences will change continuously over time, according to the development of the film market and the aesthetic trends of foreign films. In my opinion, filmmakers need to continue to experiment with new genres to keep up with audience tastes,” Meritorious Artist Bui Trung Hai said.
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