According to Box Office Vietnam data updated to the morning of September 5th, "Ho Linh Trang Si: The Mystery of King Dinh's Tomb" achieved approximately 28.5 billion VND in box office revenue after more than a week of release.
The film currently ranks third in the group of Vietnamese films released around National Day, behind "Summer Break, Afraid of Retirement" with more than 182.4 billion VND and "Quý tử vượt giàu" with more than 43.2 billion VND.
This result is significantly lower than the investment scale of the film. Previously, the crew said that "Ho Linh Trang Si" needs about 180 billion VND in box office revenue to start making a profit.
Thus, with the current 28.5 billion VND, the film is still about 151.5 billion VND away from the break-even point.
The ticket sales speed after the holiday is also a worrying sign. On September 2, the film grossed nearly 3.94 billion VND with more than 35,600 tickets out of 1,545 screenings.
However, immediately after the holiday, purchasing power decreased sharply when at noon 3/9 films only grossed more than 313 million VND with about 3,800 tickets per 1,300 screenings.
By September 5, "Ho Linh Trang Si" continued to be in the middle group of the revenue chart for the day. The film decreased to below 1,100 screenings with 3,174 tickets sold with 337.5 million VND in box office revenue.
Notably, this is an ancient costume project invested in for a long time with large production scale. The film was cherished by the crew for nearly 10 years, with 83 days of filming and 7 months of post-production.
The film crew consists of more than 170 members in the production stage, along with more than 200 people participating in post-production; many large scenes were filmed in Ninh Binh.
The film also underwent a rare change right after its release. The first 155-minute version received mixed feedback on the narration pace and how to connect the character lines. From the afternoon of August 30, the producer released a new 135-minute remake in theaters, cutting about 20 minutes to condense the story and adjust the tempo.
However, changing the editing has not created a sufficient boost in revenue. By the end of the holidays, the film was still far behind 2 Vietnamese film rivals, and ticket sales continued to decrease after the market returned to normal.
With the current revenue level, "Ho Linh Trang Si" still has the opportunity to continue exploiting the box office but needs a very large acceleration if it wants to get closer to the break-even point.
In case the number of screenings continues to decrease according to purchasing power, the possibility of the film recovering most of the funding from the domestic market will become increasingly difficult.
The results of "Ho Linh Trang Si" also show the great risks of historical and legendary projects with high budgets.
Production scale, elaborate setting and long investment time are not enough to ensure capital recovery if the work does not create a strong attraction for audiences right from the first days of release.
