Close chase
Released in theaters during the long holiday in Vietnam, "Flip Side 8" and "Detective Kien" almost do not need to compete with opponents from abroad. The screening schedule of the two films is almost overwhelming the theater systems.
According to statistics from Box Office Vietnam, as of 8:00 a.m. on May 2, the box office revenue of "Flip Side 8" has reached 100 billion VND. Meanwhile, "Detective Kien" also exceeded the figure by 86 billion VND.
Although "Flip Side 8" is currently dominating, the gap in revenue between the two films is not too large. Not to mention, since its official release, "Flip Side 8" has always overwhelmed "Detective Kien" in terms of the number of screenings.
For comparison, as of 10:00 a.m. on May 1, Ly Hai's film sold 92,338 tickets/4,102 screenings, with a day's revenue of VND 8.56 billion. Ranked 2nd is Victor Vu's "Detective Kien" with 56,381 tickets/3,037 screenings, earning 5.3 billion VND on May 1.
By 8:00 a.m. on May 2, "Detective Kien" took the lead in box office revenue for the day with 51,459 tickets/2,565 screenings, bringing in an additional VND4.23 billion. "Flip Side 8" has 48,632 tickets/3,104 screenings, earning 4.1 billion VND, temporarily withdrawing after being favored much more than Victor Vu 539's film.
However, by 10am, the revenue and bookings of "Flip Side 8" had surpassed "Detective Kien" by a short distance.
With this momentum, it is difficult to predict that "Detective Kien" or "Flip Side 8" will be a winning work in the Vietnamese box office market during the April 30 holiday this year.
Sharing the audience market share
Together dominating the Vietnamese box office, "Detective Kien" and "Flip Side 8" belong to 2 genres with different audience segments.
Accordingly, "Flip Side 8" is a family theme, labeled T13 - for audiences over 13 years old. The film revolves around a group of poor friends in the Central region with the dream of forming a dance group, being able to freely develop according to their interests and perform on professional big stages.
The work also tells the journey of being a father and a mother to understand, respect the wishes of children, and stand side by side with them on the journey to pursue their passion.
"Flip Side 8" has a new theme, even following the old ways of many domestic and international cinematic works before. However, the film that labels Ly Hai with many everyday details, easily winning the sympathy of the audience, still attracts a large number of viewers, especially family audiences, including parents and children.
Meanwhile, "Detective Kien" seems to be more picky about viewers when exploiting the theme of detective and horror. The work is labeled T16 - only for audiences over 16 years old.
The work opens with the legend of "Ma Da dragging pigs" in a highland village, where a series of people were murdered by Ma Da, leaving their bodies without heads or heads floating in the river. The mysterious disappearance of Nga (Minh Anh) - a young girl suspected of being murdered by Ma Da, leads detective Kien (Quoc Huy) to investigate.
From scary spiritual phenomena to clues for a murder case, many people involved, detectives Kien gradually find clues, exposing the truth about the Ma Da legend that has haunted the people here for many years.
The script of "Detective Kien" is not too new to detectives, but it is meticulous and logical enough to attract the majority of viewers.
Due to age limitations, "Detective Kien" is not for the disadvantaged and family audiences when going to the cinema. However, the film stimulates the curiosity of young audiences, those who want to enjoy a thrilling, logical work, and have a surprise later.
Although the theme and viewer segment are somewhat different, "Detective Kien" and "Flip Side 8" have different approaches to target young audiences. This is also the main viewer market share in Vietnamese theaters today. Therefore, which work dominates the box office market during this holiday is still unknown.
