In recent days, the film “Mai” directed by Tran Thanh has continuously broken box office records. On the first day of its release (February 10, the first day of Lunar New Year), the film sold 225,000 tickets, earning a revenue of 23.3 billion VND. According to information from the producer, by noon on February 17, “Mai” had reached a revenue of 230 billion VND, making it the fastest film to achieve this milestone in history and breaking all of Tran Thanh’s previous records with projects like “Nha ba Nu” (1 week) and “Bo gia” (9 days).
With the rapid increase of current revenue by “Mai” and the previous two projects, “Bo gia” (427 billion VND) and “Nha ba Nu” (475 billion VND), Tran Thanh has become the first director to have a total box office revenue of over 1,000 billion VND in the Vietnamese film industry.
The revenue figures prove that the Lunar New Year film market is an attractive market. And inevitably, it is a fierce competition with the participation of many experienced directors and producers.
The Year of the Snake in 2024 is no exception when many directors and producers are all releasing their “trump cards”. Director Nhat Trung – known as the “skilled” director for bringing in hundred billion VND in revenue every Lunar New Year season – is also returning after 5 years with the film “Gap lai chi Bau”.
Nhat Trung is the director of the film that broke the box office record for the Year of the Pig 2019 – “Cua lai vo Bau” – with a revenue of 15.8 billion VND on the third day of Lunar New Year.
Appearing on “Doanh nhan chinh truyen” with Saigontimes, Trung revealed that there is no specific formula for the success of a film project, as there are always variables that can occur at the last minute.
“Lunar New Year films are a big piece of cake, but they are also a not simple piece of cake,” Nhat Trung said, “The choice is not up to us. Because there is something very subjective, the role will choose the actor, the script will choose the director, and the release date will also choose the film.”
For Lunar New Year films, the scripts usually focus on family, closeness, and humor. The film “Gap lai chi Bau” is also derived from the desire to explore the realistic aspects of women in the stage of motherhood (close but less exploited in other films).
However, this is also a challenge because every year Lunar New Year films talk about family themes, reunion themes, so they can become monotonous. Not to mention, the cast are “old faces”, not only the producers and directors but also the actors are afraid of repeating themselves, afraid of being old. That is the challenge for everyone in the industry.
Photo: Dieu Nhi and Anh Tu hold the main roles for the first time in Nhat Trung’s Lunar New Year film.
Another challenge is that Vietnamese audiences now have easy access to international films, so if Lunar New Year films do not provide the value that audiences need, it will be difficult for them to spend money and time to watch. The value here is laughter, messages conveyed, and visual satisfaction…
In terms of costs, according to director Nhat Trung, it is not only the Lunar New Year films that have a large budget, but the budget depends on the scale and nature of each film. For example, the film “Dat rung Phuong Nam” (Southwest Forest Land) though not released during Lunar New Year, is one of the most expensive films to date.
However, when making Lunar New Year films, the marketing cost will be very high (even triple the normal days), not to mention the need to invest in extensive coverage across various channels, so the cost of communication will be significantly higher than that of regular films.
Looking deeper, Nhat Trung believes that the market is still lacking films with depth. How to balance audience taste, depth and profits?
“Vietnamese films are still weak in the screenwriting process. It is true that there are good screenwriters who create very good films, but personally, I still see the lack. There are about 30 cinema films every year, and only about 10 succeed in terms of revenue,” he questioned.
There are many factors that explain this, but according to Nhat Trung, the script is one of the important factors. When there is a good script, the journey behind is also smooth; if the script has problems, the film will not be good and it will fail in terms of marketing, revenue, and relationships among all parties… he himself admits to encountering this problem several times.
Related to balancing depth in films and meeting audience taste, Nhat Trung stated that the studio is working on some heartfelt scripts that he believes have depth. However, in discussions with shareholders and the film crew, they believe it will be less appealing to the audience, or the complex special effects need to be done, so the idea is abandoned.
“This is the depression in the life of a director because you can’t do everything. Therefore, you need to know that you live in a group, you can’t go alone. Going alone might succeed, but only in a short distance,” he added.
And to solve this problem, according to Nhat Trung, the market needs time. For example, the journey of Vietnamese cinema, from when it was just a few theaters owned by the State until there were new units, and today it is considered to be a boom. “In recent years, Vietnamese films have been developing very well. Many young directors have emerged, producers have been bold in investing, and many films have set records in terms of revenue,” Nhat Trung proudly said.
