"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 won with total revenue now exceeding 320 billion VND.
However, the project faced a wave of criticism, even being rated as 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 Guardian Quartet is no exception. From the time the movie released its poster and trailer until it was released in theaters, it created fierce debates from the audience.
Many people think that Tran Thanh is quite smart when he decides to change direction, choosing a humorous story, suitable for the Tet atmosphere and also his forte.
The director himself has shared many times about his plans to make a film. 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 Guardian Quartet 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 on the comedy stage for many years but still cannot make the audience laugh in the film. Many humorous details are inserted awkwardly, 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 Guardian Quartet 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 complete.
If only Tran Thanh had slowed down a bit and not put too much emphasis on releasing movies continuously during each Tet season, the situation might have been different.
If the script was invested in and polished more carefully, The Guardian Quartet 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 film 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 Guardian Quartet could not help Tran Thanh create a hat-trick but was a regrettable step backwards.
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 charts, and was continuously surpassed by competitors at the box office.
Despite Tran Thanh and his crew's efforts to promote it in every way, The Guardian Quartet 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 Billionaire Kiss ) and Hoang Nam ( Ghost Light ).
In fact, the revenue of 325 billion VND of The Guardian Quartet 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 Guardian Quartet 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 will inevitably lose the trust of the audience, and then shake his position as the "king" of the box office during Tet, 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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