Vietnamese horror and horror film series achieves hundreds of billions of VND in revenue
A typical example can be taken from Huynh Lap. Originating from a comedian, but in recent years, Huynh Lap has invested in developing personal channels on digital platforms, in which the male actor makes many videos about ghost stories and spiritual stories.
Huynh Lap is one of the most sensitive artists in this genre in the market. A series of Huynh Lap's ghost and spiritual storytelling videos have achieved large views, attracting tens of millions of views on digital platforms.
Recognizing the potential of ghost and horror genres, from a comedian - Huynh Lap has for the first time ventured into the role of director, bringing the movie "Nha gia tien" to theaters in February 2025.
Despite causing controversy about quality, being criticized for rudimentary special effects, and many loopholes in the script, "Nha gia tien" still set a record with revenue of 242 billion VND.
To see, even though he is a non-professional director, originally from a comedian, Huynh Lap can still create revenue miracles with horror and horror films.
In addition to "Nha gia tien", February 2025 also witnessed the box office breakthrough of another amateur director, Hoang Nam, with "Den am hon".
The film also received many opinions, criticized for its rudimentary script, unreasonable loopholes, but still reached the finish line with more than 100 billion VND in revenue.
Devil's Landing" has continuously produced part 1, part 2 and both have achieved great success amidst a series of psychological and romantic films that have lost revenue.
During this year's April 30th holiday, director Thach Thao's movie "Anh Hung" with Thai Hoa's impressive acting was praised for its expertise but was heavily defeated by the box office sweep of the horror movie "Heo Nam Mong".
In just 2-3 years, the horror film genre has made strong breakthroughs in quantity. A series of films have been produced, many of which are scripted from spiritual stories in folk legends.
In the first half of 2026 alone, horror films continuously peaked in revenue such as: "Phí Phông: Quỷ máu rừng thiêng" (201 billion VND), Ma xó (146 billion VND), "Quỷ nhập tràng" part 1 is 149 billion VND, part 2 (134 billion VND), Heo năm móng (124 billion VND)...
In June 2026, up to 3 horror movies were released in theaters, accounting for 58% of the total revenue of the entire market, namely "Bầy xác sống", "Lầu chú Hỏa", "Ma xó".
High return rate
The return on investment rate of horror films is considered high and very high. For psychological and action films, production costs range from 20-30 billion VND.
For historical and war films - the investment level is very large, about 50-60 billion VND. For example, for the films "Red Rain" or "The Tunnels: Sun in the Dark", it is necessary to recreate the entire historical setting, sew new costumes, invest in weapons and equipment, invest in action scenes... described by directors, "If calculated in detail, the number will be very large, countless".
Meanwhile, for a horror film project, the setting or costumes, props will be much simpler, production costs fall into the range of 10-18 billion VND.
For example, with the "Fatherland House" project, the film almost only revolves around a main setting of a simple house, the production investment is not too high, below the average level (about 20 billion VND) but the revenue is up to 242 billion VND.
With this revenue, after sharing the ratio with the theater, the producer earns hundreds of billions of VND in profit.
Accordingly, based on net profit and total investment capital, the ROI (Return on Investment) return rate of horror films is considered "very high" in the Vietnamese film market in the past 2 years.
With world cinema, the US and Korea also had horror films that were ranked among the highest-grossing films of all time.
Soompi newspaper once had an article explaining the special attraction of horror movies when "experiencing panic" in a safe space of a cinema is an interesting feeling that many people are willing to spend money to get.
For Vietnamese audiences, mysterious stories with a bit of horror revolving around oral legends, local customs, funeral rituals... will bring an experience of curiosity, finding answers, explanations from generations.
Audiences come to theaters not only to watch movies, but to see "fears from childhood" or "rumors around their homes" brought to the screen.
