The 2019 box office tallies did not hold much in the way of positive news for Hong Kong films, or the local cinema business in general. Although ticket prices rose by about 3%, the total box office for Hong Kong films recorded a slight drop of 1.72%, down from HK$1.96 billion in 2018 to HK$1.92 billion in 2019. The decline proved sharper in the second half of the year, when the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong were at their height.
52 local films were released in 2019 according to the Hong Kong Film Awards Association (HKFAA), compared to 54 local releases in 2018. But at least 20% of them were previews of 2020 releases. The total box office for Hong Kong films was HK$256 million in 2019, which was slightly more than 2018’s HK$250m. The market share of Hong Kong cinema remained at 13% in 2019.
The Lunar New Year is the only time when Hong Kong films have the power to exceed, and perhaps win up to half of the market share. Four Hong Kong films took about 30% of the box office total during Lunar New Year 2019, and all of them made the yearly top 10. Alan Mak’s anti-corruption film Integrity took almost HK$31.5m, although it still couldn’t beat Alita: Battle Angel, which took over HK$45m.
Easter is generally another good period for Hong Kong movies. David Lam’s four-episode anti-corruption film P Storm grossed close to HK$18m, with a starry cast which included Louis Koo and Julian Cheung. More surprises came from Oliver Chan’s directorial debut Still Human, which won the audience award at FEFF, and was released around the time of the Hong Kong Film Awards. With Anthony Wong leading the cast, and some highly positive reviews, it ended up grossing HK$19.84m, breaking the box office record for a film produced under the aegis of the First Feature Film Initiative set by Mad World.
Louis Koo still seems be the key actor in Hong Kong cinema. Four out of six films featuring Koo in a leading role in 2019 made the top 10, including three summer sequel crime films: Wong Jing and Jason Kwan’s Chasing the Dragon II: Wild Wild Bunch (HK$9.24m), Herman Yau’s The White Storm 2 Drug Lords (HK$24.93m) and Jazz Boon’s Line Walker 2 Invisible Spy (HK$9.43m).
But Koo’s A Witness Out of the Blue, a crime film directed by Fung Chih Chiang, with Louis Cheung and Cherry Ngan, only grossed HK$ 7.06m. That’s probably because the democracy protests which began in mid-June led to a highly negative image of the Hong Kong police, who acted brutally towards protestors, and that affected the box office for crime films. The atmosphere of the protests also resulted in a drop in the box office at Christmas, demonstrated by the performance of Wilson Yip’s Ip Man 4: The Finale. The film still passed the HK$30m mark, but only grossed half as much as the previous episode, released during Christmas 2015.
Despite the hard times that arrived in the second half of the year, there were still some surprises. Heiward Mak’s Fagara, a film about three sisters who have the same father, but different mothers from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and mainland China, was released around the time of the mid-autumn festival. Despite a slow start at the box office, it ended up grossing close to HK$8m. Another example was Guilt by Design, a film by three new directors: Paul Sze, Kenneth Lai, and Lau Wing-tai. The film, about hypnotising a jury during a court case, grossed over HK$ 5.7m when it was released in November.
Mainland Chinese films did not perform as well as films from Taiwan. 21 mainland Chinese films were released in Hong Kong, and they all disappointed at the box office. Even Dying to Survive and The Wandering Earth, both stellar hits in the mainland, didn’t do very well. While each of them grossed over 3 billion in the mainland, they only grossed HK$1.8m and HK$4.2m respectively in Hong Kong.
Only nine Taiwanese films screened in Hong Kong in 2019, but three of them grossed over HK$3m. The biggest surprise was the horror film Detention, which took HK$10m. The movie only played in 10 cinemas, but its theme of political suppression reflected the attitude of the protesters, and consequently drew the crowds.
As for Asian cinema, Japanese and Korean films performed as usual in 2019. A total of 68 Japanese films played in Hong Kong, grossing a total of HK$83.23m. Two animated films grossed over HK$10m, including Weathering with You (HK$21.36m) and Doraemon the Movie (HK$11.64m). 23 Korean films took a total of HK$59m. The action comedy Extreme Job and the Cannes award winner Parasite grossed over HK$12m. There is now a trend for Korean blockbusters in Hong Kong.
The start of 2020 did not bode well for the Hong Kong film industry. Lunar New Year, which arrived in late January in 2020, was severely affected by the spread of the coronavirus. Most cinemas in Macau and mainland China closed, but Hong Kong’s stayed open. The box office for the first day of Lunar New Year dropped by a third compared to 2019. Although Dayo Wong’s The Grand Grandmaster did well, other Hong Kong films sank.
Looking ahead, there are too many unknown factors to predict what will happen during the rest of 2020.
Ryan Law