Unprecedented Tet movie season at Vietnamese box office

The Tet Giap Thin film market fell into an imbalance when Tran Thanh's "Mai" left other competitors far behind in terms of revenue, screenings and media effects.

Movie "Mai" by Tran Thanh. Photo: Producer

Special things As of February 22, the movie "Mai" has surpassed 387 billion VND in revenue, far surpassing the remaining works shown at the same time, according to data from Box Office Vietnam. The second-ranked film "Gap lai chi bau" earned 67 billion VND, revenue only equal to 1/5 of Tran Thanh's film. The gap in revenue and screenings between "Mai" and the remaining films has been large since the first day of Tet. The Tet film race witnessed Tran Thanh breaking his own record, while "Mai" continued to achieve achievements with each day of release. The great pressure from "Mai" forced "Sang den" and "Tra" to withdraw from theaters after 3 days of release. The third work directed by Tran Thanh almost completely dominated the market. Unlike “Nha Ba Nu” which had to compete with “Chi Chi Em Em” 2 times in the 2023 Tet season, “Mai” was released in a favorable time and place, without facing any competitors of equal quality, effects, or actor names. Right before the peak of Valentine's Day, “Mai” lost 2 competitors and was even more favored in terms of screenings. In a conversation with Lao Dong, critic Nguyen Phong Viet assessed the Vietnamese cinema market for Tet this year: “The 2024 Tet film season has 2 special things. First, for the first time, 2 films withdrew from theaters after 3 days of screening. They knew they were not able to compete with “Mai”, each day there were only about 400 screenings and there was no way to recover capital. I think the film crew leaving theaters like that was slow, they should have temporarily stopped screenings from the first day when they were assigned 400 screenings/day. Second, the gap between “Mai” and the remaining films was too far. “Gập lại chi bầu” is just an average movie. It cannot be said that “Mai” is an excellent movie, but “Mai” is excellent compared to the rest”. A new ticket fever appears Tet season is a very special time for the Vietnamese box office. Audiences have a long holiday and are financially well-off. Many people do not watch movies all year but will go to the cinema during Tet because they have free time and want to be entertained. Movie revenue partly reflects the quality of the movie and the taste of the audience. It is understandable that “Gập lại chi bầu” is inferior and bland when it clashes with “Mai” when the movie still has limitations in content and script. In recent days, a name that seemed to be forgotten suddenly made a strong comeback thanks to word-of-mouth effects on social networks. That is “Dao, pho va piano” - a movie ordered by the State that used to have only 3 screenings/day. In response to public concern, Mr. Vu Duc Tung - Acting Director of the National Cinema Center - said that there will be a change in the screening schedule in the direction of reducing 50% of the number of screenings of the film "Mai" to switch to "Dao, Pho and Piano". Experts call the explosion of "Dao, Pho and Piano" an unprecedented phenomenon. But for this historical work to be able to compete with "Mai" is unimaginable. There will be no case of a film completed in 2023 but premiering for more than 10 days before having an official trailer, no fanpage, no promotion, showing at only 1 theater with a small number of screenings... becoming a rival of "Mai". As Mr. Nguyen Phong Viet commented, "Dao, Pho and Piano" is just a strange and hard-to-find dish, temporarily creating a ticket fever with Hanoi audiences. In fact, only a few State-owned films are commercially released and reach the audience. Private films have come a long way and created a big gap with state-run films in making films to serve the audience. Obviously, comparing Tran Thanh’s “Mai” with Phi Tien Son’s “Dao, Pho and Piano” is lame because the two films have their own missions, characteristics and strategies. However, the fever of tickets for “Dao, Pho and Piano” is a positive sign for the film genre commissioned by the state./.

laodong.vn

Source