[2025.07.04] HONG KONG FILM INVESTORS ARE TAKING A "WAIT AND SEE" APPROACH AND HOPING FOR A "WARM UP" NEXT YEAR

Tai Gai feels fortunate someone has taken over some of the Golden Harvest cinemas

The Ronald Cheng starred and directed ATONEMENT will be released in the summer
courtesy of mingpao.com

Hong Kong Box Office Co., Ltd. recently summarized the box office results in the first half of 2025, the total revenue of Chinese and foreign films is about HK$ 560 million; down about 16.26% from HK$ 670 million in the same period last year. A total of 21 Hong Kong-made films were released in the first half of the year with average results, the top 3 are THE WAY WE TALK (HONG NGOR GUM TIN JUM MOR SUET), PEG O' MY HEART (SHOOK MUNG) and HIT N FUN (LUM SI KUET DAU), the box office of which were all more than HK$ 13 million. The fourth place MY BEST BET (CHEUNG DOH BIT YANG) received about HK$ 11 million, and the fifth place VITAL SIGNS (SUNG YUEN TOH JUNG) received about HK$ 9.4 million. As of the day before yesterday (July 2), Hong Kong-made films that were still in release included the Louis Koo Tin Lok starred BEHIND THE SHADOWS (SI GA JING TAM) and Anthony Wong Chau Sung's VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH (BUT SEH JI JUI), which received HK$ 4.4 million and HK$ 4.5 million respectively, the Patrick Tam Yiu Man and Locker Lam Ka Hei starred FIGHT FOR TOMORROW (PING MING SAM LONG) only received HK$ 770,000, and the Fish Liew Chi Yu starred PAVANE FOR AN INFANT only received HK$ 96,000 after 14 days in release.

Regarding the continuing deterioration of the film market, the spokesman of the Federation of Hong Kong Filmmakers Tin Kai Man (Tin Gai) said that the good days have already passed as expected. Of course a miracle in the movie winter would be good, but under such a bad atmosphere at present good results would be difficult to achieve. "I am not worried that it's a lie, I am worried that it's futile. We can only take one step at a time." When would the winter period pass? He said, "No one can answer that, hoping for a 'return to warmth' next year. This month two non-government-funded films have started filming, namely the (Herman) Yau Lai To directed NGOR MOON BUT SI SUP MOR, and the other is an Edko Films investment. Now we have to work hard to create high- quality products and rebuild the confidence of the audience in the cinema."

Tin Gai thinks that the box office performance in the summer vacation should be better, with foreign films SUPERMAN and FANTASTIC 4: FIRST STEP, as well as animated films SMURFS, DORAEMON: NOBITA'S ART WORLD TALES, THE BAD GUYS 2 and CRAYON SHIN-CHAN THE MOVIE: SUPER HOT! THE SPICY KASUKABE DANCERS will bring the atmosphere to go to the movies. As for Hong Kong films, so far two films to be released are known, including ATONEMENT (AH LUNG), a movie he produced and Ronald Cheng Chung King directed and starred in; and the Aaron Kwok Fu Sing and Gigi Lei starred MY FIRST OF MAY (MO MING JI). He said that ATONEMENT was previously scheduled to be released at Golden Harvest Cinemas, but now that the entire Golden Harvest Cinema chain has completely closed the film will renegotiate for cinema releases. He said, "Fortunately others have taken over some Golden Harvest cinemas, which is also good news." Has the industry discussed about any way to bail out the market in view of the future of the film industry? He said, "Everyone have been talking, but there is no plan. The poor atmosphere recently would affect investors' desire to start productions, as everyone is holding a wait-and-see attitude."