[2024.09.04] FOREIGN FILMS DOMINATE HONG KONG SUMMER VACATION FILM BOX OFFICE

Only two Hong Kong films are among the summer top ten highest grossing films at the box office. CUSTOMS FRONTLINE (top) with HK$ 11 million came in 7th and ONCE UPON A TIME IN HKDSE (bottom) rounded out the top ten with HK$ 4.87 million

INSIDE OUT 2 is the summer vacation box office champion with over HK$ 70 million

DEADPOOL AND WOLVERINE has HK$ 47,172,096 in second place

GOD OF COOKERY 4K restored edition made 4.95 million RMB over four days in the mainland

Tin Kai Man says that the Hong Kong film market is so weak that a turnaround in the short term would be difficult

Winnie Tsang claims that environmental factors have affected box office revenue.
courtesy of mingpao.com

The Hong Kong film market is weak. Many theaters have closed recently, and the box office of this summer's film slate has "paid the bill". Relying only on foreign language films to support the market, the total box office revenue fell by about 18.22% in comparison with the same period last year. Regarding the future direction of the film industry, the spokesman of the Federation of Hong Kong Filmmakers Tin Kai Man said helplessly, "This is a question worth thinking about, but there is no turning point in the short term." Golden Scene founder Winnie Tsang Lai Fun pointed out the influence of environmental factors, but she specifically asked, "I don't understand why illegal set-top boxes don't need to be banned?"

At the end of this year's summer vacation, the box office data of Hong Kong Box Office Co., Ltd. from July 1 to August 31 showed that foreign language films still dominated the market. During the period 94 first run films were released, Hong Kong films accounted for only 14 and foreign language films accounted for 80 (94 films include 45 films released in June or before, 43 films released in July and August, and 6 preview films).

The total box office revenue of summer vacation movies was HK$ 277,534,691, a decrease of about 18.22% when compared with HK$ 339,348,115 in the same period last year. Among the 10 highest-grossing films was the animated film INSIDE OUT 2 with the best score of $73,698,025, followed by the Hollywood film DEADPOOL AND WOLVERINE at $47,172,096, animated film DESPICABLE ME 4 at $28,951,014, ALIEN: ROMULUS at 4th, DORAEMON THE MOVIE: NOBITA'S EARTH SYMPHONY at 5th, and TWISTERS at 6th.

Only two Hong Kong films made it to the top 10, namely CUSTOMS FRONTLINE (HOI GUAN JIN SIN) in 7th place with $11,164,027 and ONCE UPON A TIME IN HKDSE (GUNG HOI SI DONG JUN) in 10th place with $4,878,980. In number 8 and 9 were the animated films CRAYON SHIN-CHAN THE MOVIE: OUR DINOSAUR DIARIES and DETECTIVE CONAN THE MOVIE: THE MILLION DOLLAR PENTAGON.

Regarding the box office results of this year's summer films, Tin Kai Man replied, "It is obvious that the competitiveness of global films is relatively weak now, although there were 80 foreign language films released in Hong Kong, but only a few were particularly good. On the whole, the Hong Kong film market is weak, and it is an indisputable fact that movie theaters are closed. What do you think Hong Kong should do in the future? It's something to think about, but we don't see any change in the short term."

Golden Scene Films founder Winnie Tsang Lai Fun said, "They are mainly streaming platforms and set-top boxes, during the novel coronavirus epidemic everyone has developed a habit of watching movies at home. In addition when everyone who go to the movies at night after 7:30 o'clock show, they can't find a place to eat. During the holidays when film companies have the greatest opportunity to make money, everyone returns to the mainland for the weekend. After awhile no one is not interested in going to the movies. If the film doesn't have a special subject, the audience doesn't feel the need to go to the theater to see it and they won't want to." She added, "I don't understand why the illegal set-top boxes don't need to be banned?"

In addition, Stephen Chow Sing Chi's 1996 old film GOD OF COOKERY (SIK SUN) debuted on the big screen in the mainland with a restored edition on the 31st of last month. According to the "Maoyan" box office chart, GOD OF COOKERY over 4 days received 4.95 million yuan RMB at the box office as of 9 o'clock last night. The performance was average, which did not seem to be as good as expected.