Tet movie sets new record at the Vietnamese box office

By Mai Nhat   January 23, 2023 | 05:48 am PT
Tet movie sets new record at the Vietnamese box office
Tran Thanh (first row, third to the left) poses with the audience at a cinema in HCMC on January 22, 2023. Photo by VnExpress/Nam Nguyen
“Nha Ba Nu,” the directorial debut of comedian and TV host Tran Thanh, has sold the all-time highest number of pre-order tickets for Tet, the Lunar New Year holiday.

A representative of the production team announced that one day before Tet, the movie received 30,000 pre-order tickets. And on the first day of Tet, "Nha Ba Nu" (Nu’s Family) pulled in VND25 billion ($1.06 million), leading the box office race during the holiday. This Tet lasts from January 20-26.

Nguyen Hoang Hai, content director of CJ&CGV cinema complex, said that "Nha Ba Nu" dominated other movies that were released around this time.

"However, during Tet, the demand of the audience is often unpredictable," Ha said. "After the first day of Tet, we will observe each movie to adjust their screenings."

Thanh, the director of the movie, said he was grateful to the audience for the film's great opening day. He hopes that domestic movies during Tet will soon break even and make a profit, after a year that saw many units go released because of the economy brought down by the pandemic.

She expects his new movie to break the record of VND400 billion that was set by "Bo Gia" (Dad, I’m Sorry) in 2021, although he said he knows it will be very difficult to beat that figure. When "Bo Gia" premiered in March 2021, it got such a high revenue because audience demand for entertainment shot up after cinemas were frozen during the pandemic.

Thanh directed, co-wrote and starred in a supporting role in the movie, in which Nu (Le Giang), the owner of a crab soup shop, is a difficult mother facing the pressure of providing for her family. Due to the heartbreaks that she suffered in the past, Nu forbid her youngest daughter Ngoc Nhi (Uyen An) from having a romantic relationship.

Nhi didn't listen to her mother and dated John (Song Luan), a Vietnamese who lives abroad. The climax comes when Nhi gets pregnant and leaves her family to live with John, but soon realizes that she made the wrong decision.

In second place behind "Nha Ba Nu" is "Chi Chi Em Em 2" (Sister Sister 2), a sequel to a 2019 movie. The drama is about the battle for power between Ba Tra and Tu Nhi, two famous beauties in Saigon who in the early 20th century made VND5 billion on the first day of Tet.

The animated film "Mummies" placed third with VND1.5 billion in ticket sales. After over a month of screening, "Avatar: The Way of Water" is still in the top five for box office receipts. Its revenue in Vietnam alone is VND268 billion and it’s the second-highest-grossing international movie of all time in the country, following "Avengers: Endgame" with VND279 billion.

 
 
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