According to data from Box Office Vietnam, in just the first days of 2026, "Heaven of Blood" continuously held the highest position in the daily revenue ranking, at times surpassing even "Avatar 3". Meanwhile, "Ai thuong ai meen" despite being seriously invested and having a positive promotion team, still fell into a disadvantage. This gap does not come from luck, but is the result of many different strategic decisions.
Currently, "Heaven of Blood" has collected more than 53 billion VND, while "Who Loves Who Loves" has collected nearly 15 billion VND.
The biggest advantage of "Heaven of Blood" lies in the choice of the theme. The film exploits human trafficking across borders - a burning social issue, topical and easily arouses curiosity in the audience. In the context that viewers are increasingly interested in thorny stories, reflecting the dark side of life, the film quickly attracts attention right from the time of content release. Conversely, "Ai thuong ai meen" pursues a familiar, emotional family romance film series but finds it difficult to create a strong boost at the box office, especially when having to compete directly with foreign blockbusters and Vietnamese films with "heavy" topics.
In addition, the early screening strategy helps "Heaven of Blood" create an important momentum. Pre-release helps the film accumulate revenue, build a word-of-mouth effect and the psychology of "hot movies" before entering the peak holiday season. When movie viewing demand increased sharply, director Hoang Tuan Cuong's work clearly dominated in terms of number of screenings and theater coverage, thereby continuing to widen the gap with domestic competitors.
The cast factor also contributed significantly to the box office success of "Heaven of Blood". The presence of Quang Tuan, Quach Ngoc Ngoan and the notable return of Hoai Lam both participating in acting and performing the film's soundtrack - helping the work maintain its heat in the media. The film crew continuously organized cinetours in many provinces and cities, directly meeting audiences and stimulating ticket demand. Meanwhile, although Thu Trang and the "Ai thuong ai men" film crew also actively interacted and promoted, the spreading effect was not strong enough to compensate for disadvantages in terms of topic and timing.
The reality of the box office shows that during the first holidays of 2026, audience tastes tend to lean towards dramatic, climactic films, instead of works that tend towards gentle emotions. "Heaven of Blood" meets this need, although the quality of scripts and acting is still controversial. On the contrary, "Who Loves Who Loves" is aimed at family and middle-aged audiences - stable audiences but difficult to create a breakthrough in revenue in a short time.
