Hundred billion dollar film brands of Vietnamese cinema

These days, Vietnamese cinema lovers are excited when the movie Lat mat 6: The fateful ticket continuously dominates the box office, beating many foreign movies at the same time with revenue reaching over 150 billion VND as of May 3. Ly Hai's Lat mat series, which has lasted for the past 8 years, has become one of the Vietnamese movie series that has created an attractive effect on the majority of viewers, opening up the trend of making branded movies (franchise) on Vietnamese screens with the movie parts having the same name Lat mat but the movie stories are not continuous but independent from each other.

A SERIES OF BREAKTHROUGH AND UNIQUE MOVIE

"Brand movies" are not strange to world cinema, but a successful film brand is a "rare thing" in Vietnam. The series Lat mat is always remembered by the audience for its breakthrough, investment in filmmaking, especially in terms of setting, diverse genres from comedy, action to horror, along with family love stories imbued with the real life of the director from the Southwest region.

Scene from the movie Flip Side 6: The Fateful Ticket

In 2015, when singer Ly Hai entered the film industry with the first film Lat mat (revenue of 72 billion VND), few people expected Ly Hai to have a successful and attractive film brand that made many veteran filmmakers admire. Lat mat 2: Film studio (2016) continued to have a revenue of 80 billion VND. By Lat mat 3: Ba chang khuyet (2018), Ly Hai made a splash with a revenue of more than 85 billion VND because the film was released at the same time as the blockbuster Avengers: Infinity War. Lat mat 4: Nha co khach (2019) no longer followed the comedy - action direction that had become the common formula of the previous 3 films, but followed a different storytelling direction when combining elements of humor mixed with horror, and Ly Hai also succeeded in making the audience laugh and get scared with Mac Van Khoa's performance, reaching a revenue of 120 billion VND despite facing the global blockbuster Avengers: Endgame in theaters. In 2021, Ly Hai's action-packed Lat Mat 5: 48h grossed 150 billion VND, making it the second highest-grossing Vietnamese film of the year (after Tran Thanh's Bo Gia, which grossed over 430 billion VND). Thus, including the previous 5 parts of Lat Mat by Ly Hai, they were all very commercially successful, grossing a total of over 500 billion VND.

Not only the Lat mat series, in Vietnam, initially there have been successful multi-part films with good revenue and widely known to the audience such as Chi chi em em by producer Will Vu with part 2 just shown on Tet holiday 2023 earning 121 billion VND; Gai gia lam chieu by director Bao Nhan - NamCito, has released 4 films in theaters all with revenue of hundreds of billions, of which Gai gia lam chieu 3 alone sold more than 165 billion VND; Chi Muoi Ba by Thu Trang with 2 parts with total revenue of nearly 200 billion VND...

Director Bao Nhan said: "We, as well as several other directors, have made efforts to create a series of films with a unified theme, genre and high connectivity to build a series of films with our own unique mark". After 4 parts of the film Gai gia lam chieu left an impression and became a hit, revolving around the story of "feminism", urban girls over the age of 30, the two directors Bao Nhan and NamCito announced the implementation of a new film project, called Vu vu My nhan, including a series of films, including the movie Co gai tu qua qua (released in theaters in October 2022) and the 6-season Premium Original Series called Tu dai beauties, which will be broadcast on an online platform.

Ngoc Trinh and Minh Hang in the movie Sister Sister 2

WHY DO SOME SERIES LASTER FOR MANY SEASONS?

When Ly Hai announced the series of Lat Mat projects, many people expressed doubts, thinking that he was just making a sequel. However, it was Ly Hai's "improving skills as he worked" that helped him and Vietnamese cinema officially have a popular and prestigious brand, just like Hollywood's way of attracting audiences to the theater. The reason Ly Hai's Lat Mat series was successful was because the director always put in the effort to research to create a project that suited the audience's taste, and the series gained the trust and affection of the audience.

TOWARDS AN "ECOSYSTEM"

Director Tran Huu Tan and producer Hoang Quan said they will continue to make a series of horror films about urban legends, as they did with the film Ghost Story Near Home, which was released in early 2022 and grossed 60 billion VND. Producer Will Vu said: "A series is what we want to build to create familiarity in the brand name of the film with the audience. On a larger scale, we want to create an ecosystem including cinema, business and media so that the released films are always popular and the brand name has great influence. If the films are successful, it will have the effect of promoting more professional filmmaking, stimulating the development of the Vietnamese film market."

With Lat mat 6: The ticket of destiny, Ly Hai said he decided to "renew himself", step out of the comfort zone of the comedy - action genre, which is his forte, to make his first psychological thriller. However, this boldness is still carefully calculated in the script to make it more surprising and attractive, making an effort to explore the character's psychology; at the same time, he is "willing to spend, willing to play", investing heavily in the way of making the film (recreating the scene of the ancient village of Dinh Yen in Lap Vo district, Dong Thap province, the frame, the editing rhythm are more novel...). This shows a clear direction and strategy from the crew to create more attraction for Lat mat, so that it can go the long way with Lat mat 7, 8 in the following years. Ly Hai shared: "Currently, I still focus on serving the common audience, the script is easy to understand, everyone can enjoy it. With the series Lat mat, I always set a goal: The next part must be more complete and attractive than the previous part. Besides, selectively receiving opinions from the audience is the way I overcome the weaknesses of the parts I have done."

It can be seen that there are also series of films that pursue to parts 3 and 4 but then run out of steam, the story development in the new films is no longer special. Recently, there are films that make sequels with the intention of creating a famous series but fail, such as the action film Thanh Soi by Ngo Thanh Van made after the 200 billion revenue success of Hai Phuong, only selling a total of 22.9 billion VND in tickets at the theater because the film's content was not suitable and did not hit the right time at the time of release.

Source link: https://thanhnien.vn/nhung-thuong-hieu-phim-tram-ti-cua-dien-anh-viet-185230504005642393.htm