The Department of Cinema has just requested film production, distribution and dissemination units to be cautious when exploiting elements of violence, horror and superstition.
Despite recording the positive development of Vietnamese cinema, management agencies believe that the horror film genre is increasing sharply, in which some works abuse bloody and sensational details to attract audiences but have not paid commensurate attention to artistic quality.
According to Box Office Vietnam, total box office revenue on the weekend of June 19-21 reached 67.2 billion VND.
The top three positions all belong to horror films including "Boys and Souls" (14.9 billion VND), "The Flame Tower" (12.7 billion VND) and "The Ghost Rider" (11.35 billion VND).
These three works alone brought in nearly 39 billion VND, equivalent to about 58% of total market revenue, showing the overwhelming attraction of horror films in Vietnamese cinemas.
Meanwhile, the movie "Mesdames Thanh Sắc" starring Thanh Hang, Hong Anh, Luong The Thanh achieved 8.53 billion VND after 4 days of screening. Other films such as "White Snake: A Human Life", "What's Your Name?", "Ponyo Girl" recorded quite modest revenue.
Last weekend, the revenue top spot belonged to "The Walking Dead" of Korea, while the ranking also recorded the presence of horror films such as "Obsession" (USA - UK) or "Malu" (Indonesia).
This wave is predicted to continue to increase in the coming time as Vietnamese cinemas prepare to welcome new series of films such as "Minh Hon in Butterfly Cage", "Devil's Body" and "Linh Mieu Vengeful".
The first half of 2026 witnessed the rise of horror films in the Vietnamese box office.
A series of works such as "Quỷ nhập tràng 2" (more than 133 billion VND), "Phí Phông: Quỷ máu rừng thiêng" (201 billion VND) and "Heo năm móng" (124 billion VND) continuously created impressive revenue milestones, while "Ma xó" continued to maintain its appeal to audiences. At one point, the top three box office revenue positions all belonged to horror films.
Not only Vietnamese films, horror works from the US, Korea, Thailand, Indonesia or Japan are also favored by cinema complexes, contributing to showing the strong attraction of this genre.
The appeal of horror films at the box office today comes not only from domestic works but also driven by many foreign films.
Many viewers said that when going to theaters, they don't know what movies to watch other than horror movies. Meanwhile, producers tend to produce horror movies because this is a movie genre that is attracting viewers and achieving positive revenue.
