Box Office Revenue Exceeds 1,000 Billion VND, Rapid Growth Continues
As of May 4, Lật Mặt 7: A Wish Granted directed by Lý Hải has grossed approximately 230 billion VND, according to data from Box Office Vietnam.
After more than a week of release, Lý Hải’s film shows no signs of declining popularity. Each day, the film generates about 10 billion VND, with peak days sometimes reaching up to 20 billion VND per day.
With its rapid and continuous increase in earnings, Lật Mặt 7 has become the second highest-grossing film in Vietnamese cinema history, surpassing the 1,000 billion VND mark in box office revenue, following Trấn Thành.
According to Mr. Nguyễn Khánh Dương, the founder of Box Office Vietnam, every prediction has been met regarding Lật Mặt 7. Lý Hải’s film debuted during the long holiday from April 30 to May 1, spanning five days.
There has been no indication yet that Lý Hải’s film will not achieve great commercial success, especially with Xuân Lan, Mai Thu Huyền, and Phan Gia Nhật Linh looking at the revenues and performances in the closely related film industry.
According to Mr. Khánh Dương, all predictions regarding Lật Mặt 7. It is possible that A Wish Granted aims to reach the target of The Greatest (a film with the highest revenue in 2021, earning 427 billion VND).
To estimate the increasing revenue of Lật Mặt 7, one only needs to look at the daily screening numbers of the film. On May 4, the film enjoyed 4,263 screenings out of 81,015 tickets sold. To achieve this, the theaters need to offer more than 4,000 screenings per day, something that not every film can achieve, especially when Lật Mặt 7 had just been released for more than a week.
Previously, Vietnamese cinemas only had films by Trấn Thành with approximately 5,000 screenings per day, due to advanced ticket sales.
While Lý Hải and Trấn Thành sell tickets steadily outside the box office, many directors and producers excel in attracting viewers. During the Tet holiday of 2024, two films will be released: Trà and Sáng, slipping in due to Mai exerting pressure on the screening numbers.
By the end of the holiday on April 30 – May 1, the ability to sell tickets for many Vietnamese films becomes notably challenging when Lật Mặt 7 is released.
Even when only screened for a few early days, Lật Mặt 7, The Price of Happiness is still suffering from revenue losses (total revenue is currently 25.6 billion VND, gradually increasing day by day) as Lý Hải’s films dominate Vietnamese box office.
In the coming years, both Lý Hải and Trấn Thành are expected to remain the top names in the box office during the Tet film season (specifically part of Trấn Thành) and films released during the holiday on April 30 – May 1 (the cost-saving strategy of Lý Hải).
And if the market continues to trend toward “Trấn Thành, Lý Hải, and others,” according to assessments from the film analysis company Nguyễn Phong Việt, it may take a long time for a third filmmaker to break into the thousand billion revenue club.
And if a filmmaker from the thousand billion club appears, it is hard to imagine anyone reaching the 1,000 billion threshold faster than Trấn Thành (more than 1,400 billion VND after three Tet films) or surpassing Lý Hải (more than 1,000 billion VND after seven released works).
How Much is Lý Hải Earning?
Besides becoming the second filmmaker in Vietnamese cinema history to surpass 1,000 billion VND, Lý Hải is currently experiencing a significant breakthrough in film revenue.
The trend of revenue from the Lật Mặt series has seen a steady increase after each part, starting from the first film released in 2015.
With 72 billion VND from Lật Mặt 1, Lý Hải’s second installment Lật Mặt 2: The Uninvited achieved 80 billion VND, and afterwards Three Lost Brothers earned over 85 billion VND.
In 2019, Lý Hải released Lật Mặt 4: The House of Guests. The film earned over 120 billion VND despite competing with the blockbuster Avengers: Endgame. After that, the third installment named Lật Mặt: 48h grossed over 150 billion VND.
2023 is considered a breakthrough year for Lý Hải as Lật Mặt 6: The Fate of the Ticket achieved revenue exceeding 300 billion VND, doubling that of the previous installments.
This year, the brand Lật Mặt continues to “bring in profits” during the April 30 – May 1 holiday. With revenue surpassing 200 billion VND after five days of screening and continuing to grow strongly, director Lý Hải has exceeded 1,000 billion VND in box office revenue.
With almost ten years dedicated to becoming a filmmaker earning thousands of billions of VND, Lý Hải is practically unable to “break the bank” over 1,000 billion VND.
According to the production company Nguyên Cao Tùng, with experience in film production and distribution for Galaxy Cinema, Lý Hải’s actual earnings are significantly lower than the 1,000 billion VND threshold.
In an exchange with Tiền Phong, Cao Tùng pointed out the calculation methods that the theaters apply broadly to assess Lý Hải’s revenue.
Firstly, every part of the Lật Mặt film series incurs about 8-10% VAT.
Next, Lý Hải pays approximately 50% in theater fees.
After that, the filmmaker must pay an additional 4% to the distributor on the total revenue after deducting the film tax.
“After deducting all expenses as mentioned above, the 1,000 billion VND of Lật Mặt only leaves about 441.6 billion VND. Continuing to deduct expenses for the film and PR costs of about 175-200 billion VND (the net revenue), Lý Hải would earn about 240 billion VND,” the production company Cao Tùng stated.
Additionally, the mentioned net revenue of 240 billion VND does not account for personal income tax or corporate income tax, financing costs, and interest (if any).
The Cao Tùng production company had previously estimated the revenue that Trấn Thành would receive from the earnings of over 1,400 billion VND from Mai, Nhà Bà Nữ and The Greatest.
After deducting all expenses as per the initial agreement with the theaters, PR costs, production expenses… the revenue Trấn Thành earned from the three most profitable films at the Vietnamese box office is around 453.6 billion VND.
The Cao Tùng production company emphasizes that the actual revenue may vary because the revenue-sharing ratio between theaters and filmmakers is different.
The revenue-sharing rate is typically 55% for the first week, 50% for the second week, and 45% for the third week (depending on the film’s brand and the popularity of the director, as well as the initial investment of the theaters).
In summary, the Cao Tùng production company believes that theaters (while also being the distributors) taking more than 60% of the film’s revenue is reasonable.
“Theaters often invest significantly in marketing, with daily revenue being just the ticket sales themselves, primarily focusing on production costs. Therefore, the first week a film is released, the share taken is often very high. If the government does not yet have supportive policies for the domestic content industry, in terms of principles, theaters must operate under the market mechanism to remain sustainable,” the Cao Tùng production company noted.
