Rhino Entertainment Original
Text|Nam Rumin Editor|Park Fang
After a long time, the Hong Kong film market has recovered, and this recovery is not a whim, but a long-term gradual progress.
With "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" breaking another record, the box office records of local Hong Kong films have changed hands many times in a year. Does this mean that Hong Kong movies have ushered in a new spring? Can it continue? It is still difficult to make a conclusion, but at this moment, the recovery of the Hong Kong film market has just formed a unified node with the recovery of the mainland market, and jointly completed a wave of bottoming out.
"Poison Tongue Lawyer"
Accomplished an unprecedented feat
After a long silence, Hong Kong films ushered in a sudden outbreak, which was unexpected by everyone, and completed the update and iteration of the box office list in the fastest time. And the most shocking thing is undoubtedly this "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer". Just when "Tomorrow's War" broke the local film record in Hong Kong last year with the momentum of destruction and decay, the small-cost "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" easily dropped the new record in seconds.
At present, the cumulative box office of "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" has exceeded the 100 million Hong Kong dollar mark, what does this number mean? Looking at the entire history, whether it is the "Double Monday" or any classic Hong Kong film imaginable, it is far from matching. Of course, the passage of time, especially under the premise of inflation, cannot be compared positively with the ancient gods, but for the current sluggish Hong Kong film market, "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" is too uplifting.
"Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" has now won the Hong Kong local historical box office championship, this kind of emergence, just like the emergence of "Wolf Warrior 2" in the mainland market that year, are all that are unknown, are ignored before the screening, and have greatly refreshed the previous box office record. This kind of super dark horse is unattainable, especially to have such a major feat of breaking 100 million, and it has truly opened a new era in the Hong Kong film market.
Of course, Hong Kong is a very open market, there is no so-called mainland slotting protection, so its historical box office list is full of Hollywood blockbusters. Moreover, Hollywood has an absolute crushing advantage over Hong Kong, and to some extent, the market has no protection mechanism, which is also one of the reasons for the slow development of Hong Kong local films. Therefore, looking at the entire history, "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" is also groundbreaking.
(Top 10 box office history in Hong Kong market)
From the current data trend, the current box office list TOP10 is completely occupied by Hollywood, especially Marvel movies, but also a variety of hegemony, as many as 7 films. Including "Avatar", both have also entered the ranks of TOP4. You must know that Hong Kong local films used to be far away from this list, but now with the success of "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" breaking 100 million, the film has obtained the key to TOP10.
This is a real small broad, the small film "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" can compete with Hollywood blockbusters, itself is full of infinite inspiration, whether it will activate the entire film market, so that more excellent Hong Kong local films into the TOP10, this is unknown. At least "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" has opened this door, and it has also allowed Hong Kong films to find new creative ideas and directions.
The continuous explosion of local films in Hong Kong
If you push forward, the popularity of the Hong Kong film market has to be traced back to the 90s of the last century, which can be described as the golden age of Hong Kong films, and can even compete with Hollywood, as one of the earliest rising film markets in the world, the Hong Kong film industry has always been at the forefront of the world, especially with the birth of "Double Monday", which completely made Hong Kong films enter a rapid outbreak period.
However, with the advent of the new century, with the rise of the mainland market, Hong Kong's limitations have been infinitely magnified. With Stephen Chow's "Kung Fu" breaking the local box office record in Hong Kong in 2004, a long period of depression followed, completely losing its courage. In other words, Hong Kong films have ushered in nearly 20 years of stagnation, and the film market has become close to saturation and cannot find new growth points.
In the past 20 years, the disconnection of Hong Kong film talents is very terrible, new directors and new actors can not carry the market, still rely on the support of the old and middle generation, so Andy Lau, Kwok Fucheng, Koo Tianle, Liu Qingyun, Zhang Jiahui and others repeatedly match each other, and no newcomers can come out. Moreover, Hong Kong films have to rely on mainland capital to upgrade their production, and there are fewer and fewer purely local films.
The problems faced by Hong Kong films are more complicated, not only the lack of talent, but also a large number of Hong Kong filmmakers have gone north, resulting in a decline in overall production capacity and a deteriorating market environment. The cost is rising, but the market has not grown at all, forcing Hong Kong films to make a connection with the mainland market, in other words, a single Hong Kong market can no longer make local films return to their roots.
After a long wait, it was not until 2016 that "Chill 2" surpassed "Kung Fu" with a score of 66.82 million Hong Kong dollars and became the new box office champion. But this kind of sporadic outbreak is obviously not enough to support the entire Hong Kong market, and it casually enters a long downturn again. At this moment, the mainland market in 2016 has already successfully exceeded the 3 billion mark. There is a huge gap between the two markets.
But the Hong Kong film market after 2021 seems to have been awakened, and suddenly ushered in waves of outbreaks, which can be described as unprepared. The first is the leading "Anita Mui", the film was released in 2021, and finally hit 62.5 million Hong Kong dollars in Hong Kong, successfully surpassing Stephen Chow's "Kung Fu" and winning the position of the runner-up at the local box office.
(Latest Hong Kong Local Box Office Top 10)
Since opening this opening, the back has been unreceivable. It can be clearly seen from the list that "Kung Fu", which once held the box office champion, has not been broken for 12 consecutive years, you must know that most of the classic movies on the list are classic movies from the 90s of the last century, and many of them have been dominated by Jackie Chan and Stephen Chow. But later, with "Anita Mui" as the node, everyone is surpassing "Kung Fu". There are fewer and fewer old films left on the list.
And 2022 is undoubtedly an important year for Hong Kong films to return to the peak, "Tomorrow's War" and "Still Think You Are the Best" have sprung up, both surpassing "Chill 2" to refresh the box office, and "Tomorrow's War" has also become the Asian film box office champion in the Hong Kong market. After years of silence, it undoubtedly shocked everyone to rebound in such an explosive manner.
Another "Still Think You're the Best" also exceeded the record by more than 10 million Hong Kong dollars, and it won such an amazing box office record with the most local comedy romance genre in Hong Kong. At the same time, the glory of 2022 does not stop there, in addition to "Tomorrow's War" and "Still Think You Are the Best", the later "Superstar Cultivation" exceeded the 40 million mark, which is also a very good result.
Including "The Corridor of Justice" won 39.14 million Hong Kong dollars, "Min Family Spicy" 32.62 million Hong Kong dollars, etc., while 5 films exceeded the 30 million Hong Kong dollar mark, the Hong Kong film market seemed to dream back to the brightest mid-90s, completing the real meaning of the bottoming rebound. And 2023's "Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" seems to have completed the final blow, allowing Hong Kong films to get a real transformation and sublimation.
"Poisonous Tongue Lawyer" has brought Hong Kong films into the 100 million era, hoping that this is a new starting point for Hong Kong films.