Is Vietnamese cinema in its golden age?
The 2024 Tet film season will see competition between four Vietnamese films: “Mai” (Tran Thanh), “Gap lai chi bau” (Nhat Trung), “Sang den” (Hoang Tuan Cuong) and “Tra” (Le Hoang) along with four foreign films: “Madame web” (released on February 14), the animated film “Animal Arena”, the Japanese animated film “Gia dinh x Diep vien Ma Trang” and “Argylle: Super spy”.
However, “Sang Den” and “Tra” were both withdrawn from theaters after a few days of showing and achieved modest revenue. These films changed their release schedules and moved to other times to avoid competing with Tran Thanh’s film. According to data from Box Office Vietnam - an independent statistical unit, after 10 days of showing, the revenue of Tet Giap Thin films is estimated at 479 billion VND, in which the work “Mai” by director Tran Thanh has been at the top for the past 10 days.
By the end of February 19, “Mai” had reached a milestone of more than 362 billion VND. The number of tickets sold each day was more than 167,000, the number of screenings increased each day, averaging about 4,500 screenings. The cinema occupancy rate reached 72% - an unprecedented level in the history of Vietnamese cinema. Before that, the film continuously set many impressive records when it sold 225,000 tickets, earning 23.3 billion VND in revenue on the first day of its release (February 10, the first day of Tet).
On February 13, the film set a record of 100 billion VND in revenue, the fastest to be sold in history (after only 3 days of release), surpassing the previous achievement of “Nha Ba Nu” (reaching 100 billion VND after 3.5 days of release). “Mai” also reached the revenue milestone of 200 billion VND after 5 days of release and after only 8 days, it earned 300 billion VND (surpassing the record of 300 billion VND in 11 days of “Nha Ba Nu”). Tran Thanh also became the first Vietnamese director to have a total revenue of 3 films reaching 1,000 billion VND.
With the above impressive achievements, "Mai" is predicted to continue to set new records. Experts and professionals all agree that the film will reach a revenue of 500 billion VND or even 600 billion VND when it leaves theaters.
Revenue from the Tet Giap Thin film season also recorded that Nhat Trung’s “Gap lai chi bau” had a relatively stable number of screenings and total ticket sales. By the end of February 19, the film had reached a revenue of 63 billion VND - considered proportional to the quality of the work.
Notably, the biggest surprise in this year’s Tet film race belongs to the state-owned film “Peach, Pho and Piano”. Currently, “Peach, Pho and Piano” has recorded a revenue of 505 million VND. The film was produced with state funding and shown at only one theater, the National Cinema Center.
“Peach, Pho and Piano” created a “fever” at the box office when the number of viewers accessing to buy movie tickets increased dramatically, causing the website of the National Cinema Center to crash. According to Mr. Vu Duc Tung - Acting Director of the National Cinema Center, this is an “unprecedented phenomenon”.
Looking at the box office performance of “Mai” and the positive reactions from “Dao, Pho and Piano”, experts say this is a welcome and positive sign for Vietnamese cinema.
According to Ms. Mai Hoa - General Director of Galaxy Studio, the most optimistic signal at present is the support of Vietnamese audiences for domestic films. The evidence is that although the economy is quite gloomy in 2023, the quantity and quality of Vietnamese films are not breakthroughs, but the total box office revenue has grown strongly, especially at the end of the year and on the occasion of Lunar New Year 2024. Many films have set positive revenue milestones. In the context of online movie viewing platforms becoming increasingly diverse, it can be seen that audiences are still willing to spend money on Vietnamese films.
Expert Nguyen Phong Viet sees the golden time for Vietnamese cinema from the perspective that our market is very developed and open. According to Mr. Viet, in 2023, while major film industries in the world such as North America, Europe, Korea and China have all reached saturation point and declined, Vietnamese cinema is a "rare thing" with a breakthrough growth in revenue . "Do not blame Vietnamese audiences for not being interested and not favoring Vietnamese films. The Vietnamese film market has a lot of potential, the important thing is whether we have good, quality films that meet the audience's tastes and make them go to the theater or not."
Scene from the movie "Peach, Pho and Piano".
Has the road opened for state films?
According to Mr. Vi Kien Thanh, 2023 can be said to be the year the film industry made many impressions. Producing 40 feature films, earning 1,700 billion VND in revenue, many box office hits are proof of the impressive recovery after 3 years of the film industry being heavily affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
In addition to the regulations promoted by the 2022 Cinema Law as well as the spirit of openness and innovation in ordering State film production, in order to have many quality commissioned films produced from the form of public-private partnership, Vietnamese cinema is facing some difficulties in mechanisms and policies.
“Currently, the State only invests in the production of 3 feature films per year. Of the 40 feature films produced in 2023, only 3 are ordered by the State, the remaining 37 are produced by private units. However, films ordered by the State are classified as essential public services, using 100% of State funds. This regulation makes it difficult to produce public-private feature film projects,” said the Director. According to Mr. Thanh, this inadequacy has caused some film scripts, although highly appreciated by the Department of Cinema and desired for investment and production, to not be able to apply the combined method, so they cannot be implemented.
Public opinion has also mentioned the fact that films produced with state funding have been quite unstable in terms of output, remaining quiet after the premieres. Since the success of “I See Yellow Flowers on the Green Grass”, Vietnamese cinema has not had a film produced with public-private funding or using the state budget that has been widely released and has achieved high revenue from theaters. “Putting films in theaters is therefore also a problem for films ordered by the state, because currently there is only funding to produce films, but not to distribute and disseminate them,” said Director Vi Kien Thanh.
This situation has been recognized, and recently, Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Ta Quang Dong held a meeting with the participation of the Department of Cinema, the Department of Legislation, the Department of Planning and Finance to find a solution. Mr. Vi Kien Thanh informed: “The Department of Cinema has developed a pilot project, expected to be implemented in the two years 2024 - 2025. If approved, it will try to implement it right away during the Lunar New Year of Giap Thin. Accordingly, the National Cinema Center will be assigned to organize distribution and dissemination, with 100% of the revenue paid to the State. The implementation project will contribute to solving the difficulty due to the lack of funding for films using the State budget".
The Director of the Cinema Department added that for a long time, the Department has been screening ordered films in film weeks and commemorative film seasons at home and abroad; or sending them to provinces and cities for distribution and dissemination. However, the distribution and dissemination in the cinema system to serve a large audience and generate revenue to contribute to the film industry is still a gap.
It is still too early to talk about the path of State films to theaters. “Peach, Pho and Piano” is a phenomenon, a welcome sign, but if State films still maintain the old way of making films, the old way of thinking, will the phenomenon remain just a phenomenon?
For state-owned films to compete with commercial films and establish a position at the box office, a comprehensive change is probably still needed, not only in the way of thinking about filmmaking but also in the way of "selling" and promoting the product.
Khanh An
Source
Comment (0)