Increasing production costs, Vietnamese films are still “lost” at the box office

A paradox is happening at the Vietnamese box office, that is, many films with a budget investment are considered “terrible” compared to the Vietnamese film market, but the revenue is only a few billion dong.

If in the past, Vietnamese films invested only about 10 -20 billion VND for all stages: Communication, production, actors’ pay… for movies to be released in theaters, now many Vietnamese films have increased their levels. Double or even triple your investment. However, in contrast to the “huge” investment, many Vietnamese films in 2022 are still “lost” at the box office. This is alarming.

Vietnamese “blockbuster” “plays out” at the box office

Recently, many Vietnamese films are landing at the box office when cinemas reopened after the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic. In which, many works have received great investment. Ly Nha Ky’s movie with the title 3rd person invested nearly 33 billion VND. Film 578: Crazy shot invested 60 billion dong… Compared to the common ground, the investment cost of these films is much higher. However, when it went to cinemas, it brought in meager revenue, reaching only a few billion dong.

Released in mid-May, the work “The 3rd Man” by Ly Nha Ky attracted attention as one of the biggest budgeted Vietnamese film projects since the beginning of the year. After 15 days of screening, according to Box Office Vietnam, the film did not reach the milestone of one billion dong. On May 27, at the CGV and Galaxy systems, the movie was no longer available and was gradually withdrawn from other cinemas.

Besides Ly Nha Ky’s movie, another film showing signs of “premature death” at the box office is “578: The bullet of a madman” (directed by Luong Dinh Dung). The film was announced with an investment of 60 billion VND, after a week, the film earned about 3 billion VND – according to Box Office data.

On the website of the cinema clusters, the movie has few showings due to the reduced viewing demand of the audience. With this momentum, movie experts predict “578: Bullet of the Madman” will leave theaters with dismal gross. Becoming one of the most losing Vietnamese movies ever.

Many other Vietnamese films also suffered the same loss of tens of billions of dong. In which, a number of movies with the best revenue in 2022 also only stop at more than a few tens of billion dong such as: “Sweet Trap” with 87 billion VND, “Super easy job” (72 billion VND) VND), “The key to a hundred billion” (70 billion VND), “Ghost stories near home” (62 billion VND).

Meanwhile, the film “beats the box” at the box office can’t… be told with “Love the Western Girl” (8 billion dong), “The Listener” (2.5 billion dong), “The Loverx (1, 2 billion dong)… Before the movies “The 3rd” or “578: The bullet of the madman”, there was another Vietnamese movie with an investment of 50 billion dong, “Repentance”. However, the film only earned about 1 billion VND in revenue and withdrew from the theater in a state of heavy loss.

Why raise production costs, Vietnamese films are still at a loss?

Many Vietnamese films in recent years have increased production costs. This used to be the wish of many Vietnamese filmmakers when they had to weigh and measure too many stages in the film making process.

However, when the improvement of funding to invest in the context, costumes … only attracts the look, while the film depth is the weakness of Vietnamese filmmakers. That is also the reason why films with high production budgets have suffered losses in recent years.

Consider the movie “The 3rd person” by Ly Nha Ky. The film has weak content, poor acting. “The third person” chooses the story of the husband trying to change the past to prevent the accident that caused his wife’s death. The film has a timeless motif, a cinematic image through the hands of Korean director Park Hee Joon. However, the film encountered a serious minus point in Ly Nha Ky’s acting. The work is weak in plot with an unreasonable script line.

In addition, “578: Shot of a madman” was also criticized by the audience for being weak in acting because it mainly focused on the action stage. For the first time hitting the cinema, H’Hen Niê – the detective Bao Vy has a strong and sexy image but doesn’t have time to promote her acting. The scenes she participated in were mainly posing, the background, the background of the character was not carefully exploited, causing questions for viewers.

In addition to H’Hen Niê, the rest of the cast also has a minus point in their silly, unmarked lines. Initially, the director of the film said that the work’s intention was to condemn pedophilia and protect children. However, when put on film, the message is not clear, making the film counterproductive.

According to screenwriter Hong Nhung: “Vietnamese films have suffered losses in the past time despite high-budget investment, the main reason coming from the content and acting stages. These two factors are important, determining the success or failure of the film.

In addition, film effects also need to be focused. Many movies have lost money in the past time because of weak communication, low spread, and weak audience access. If compared to many years ago, Vietnamese films won big based on box office stars, but now the factor of spread and communication is very important because social networks are booming, audiences access movies through media, applications such as Facebook, TikTok mainly.

In addition, after the translation, the audience also chooses carefully to watch the movie more carefully. They are ready to eliminate bad movies. That proves through foreign blockbusters that there is still life in Vietnam – many films exceed the 100 billion VND mark or nearly 200 billion VND when shown in Vietnam.