After a year of negative growth in 2018, the Vietnamese film market made some impressive breakthroughs in 2019. The total revenue of the whole movie market rose to VND 4,000 billion, an increase of about 25% on last year. Moreover, many box-office records for foreign and domestic films were broken. Even so, many domestic films failed miserably at the box office.
Looking at the top 10 foreign films of 2019, it can be clearly seen that the tastes of Vietnamese audiences are now quite similar to those of international audiences. Most of the top-grossing foreign films in the country did well in North America and the rest of the world. One thing to note is that the top 12 films, which include Annabelle: Comes Home (73 billion VND) and Jumanji 2 (about 50 billion VND), are all either franchise sequels, reboots, revivals, or spin-offs.
Superhero movies, especially films from Marvel Studios, took the top spots and proved their continuing popularity in Vietnam. Avengers: Endgame, which set the all-time global box-office record of US$2.79 billion, also broke the domestic record in Vietnam, with a take of VND 285 billion (US$12.4 million). That was nearly VND 80 billion higher than Avengers: Infinity War, the previous record holder. Third and fourth positions in the domestic charts were also held by Marvel or Marvel Studios films: Spider-Man: Far from Home and Captain Marvel, which had box-office takes of about VND 112 billion and VND 110 billion respectively.
Hobbs & Shaw, a Fast and Furious spin-off, came in second with a take of VND 153 billion, demonstrating the home audience’s enduring love for this action film series. Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Disney’s fairy-tale sequel, ranked highly in Vietnam, with a take of VND 86 billion. The attraction of Maleficent: Mistress of Evil was Angelina Jolie, who is a much-loved star in Vietnam.
Even so, many high-profile international films failed in Vietnam. Toy Story 4 did not even make it into the top 20, and Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was also a failure.
Horror movies are always popular in Vietnam. In addition to It 2 and Annabelle Comes Home, some low-budget international horror films made some easy money in Vietnam, notably Crawl (more than VND 50 billion), Us (VND 35 billion), Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and 47 Meters Down: Uncaged (approximately VND 30 billion each).
This preference extends to domestic horror films. All three of the Vietnamese horror movies shown in the last months of 2019, Kumanthong (That Son Tam Linh), The Blind Shaman (Phap Su Mu), and Bac Kim Thang, succeeded at the box office.
Vietnamese audiences are sometimes predictable and sometimes not. Parasite and Friend Zone surpassed the VND 50 billion mark to become the highest grossing Korean and Thai films in Vietnam respectively. Parasite was also the most successful international art film in Vietnamese box-office history. The Vietnamese audience is not picky about art films if they are appealing, have universal messages, and are relatable.
2019 was a breakthrough year for domestic films, as five films surpassed the VND 100 billion mark, compared to only one similar success in 2017 and 2018.
The local audience’s taste in domestic films has started to diversify. Up to 2019, the most popular movie genres each year were romantic comedy, comedy, or family comedy. But this year, new genres such as action (Hai Phuong), horror comedy (Lat Mat: Nha Co Khach), gangster (Chi Muoi Ba), and erotic thriller (Chi Chi Em Em) arrived. Domestic horrors had some spectacular breakthroughs at the box office, with three high-grossing films, Kumanthong , The Blind Shaman (both taking VND 50 billion) and Bac Kim Thang (VND 42 billion). Dear Devil Brother (Anh Trai Yeu Quai, VND 43 billion) and Vu Qui Dai Nao (VND 36 billion), placed just outside of the top 10.
Out of the 43 domestic films that hit theatres in 2019, 13 were successful in terms of box-office takings and 30 failed. So around three-quarters of domestic releases fail. Fateful Call, Innocence First Love, Cheer Up Don’t Go, Infernal Affairs, Vampire Master, Finding Husband for Mom, Oppa Is So Annoying, Dumb 17-Year-Old, all failed. But such films were of poor quality, so that was not surprising. Many films only took a few hundred million VND, even though they had a budget of billions. Consequently, there have been loud calls to “rescue” Vietnamese films.
Although many Vietnamese films failed at the box office, the revenue of local movies increased from VND 800 billion in 2018 to VND 1,150 billion in 2019. That was down to several impressive domestic films. This is an increase of more 40%, something that’s unprecedented in Vietnamese film history.
The market share of local films rose to 29% (1150 VND billion of the total market revenue of 4,000 VND billion). But the figures are not quite as impressive as they look, as the top 10 highest grossing Vietnamese films account for 80% of the local industry’s share of the revenue, and the remaining 33 films account for the remaining 20%.
On the positive side, there are five domestic films in the yearly top 10. This is the most outstanding achievement of the domestic films for many years.
Le Hong Lam