The Hong Kong film "The Siege of the Kowloon Walled City" starring Louis Koo, Lin Feng, Sammo Hung, Yam Xianqi, Liu Junqian and others has received rave reviews since its release, and its box office growth has risen to a new level almost every day, and it is generally regarded as the biggest favorite for the box office champion of Hong Kong Chinese films in 2024. And on the 18th, the film ushered in good news again: the Hong Kong box office exceeded 60 million Hong Kong dollars.
Seeing that his work is so brilliant, Louis Koo, as the protagonist, is of course excited, and he urgently recorded a video in Cannes to express his gratitude to the Hong Kong audience: "Our "Siege of the Kowloon Walled City" has exceeded 60 million! Here, on behalf of all the actors and actresses of "Kowloon Walled City", I would like to thank all the audience for their support, and I hope you will continue to support "Kowloon Walled City". The following is a screenshot of the relevant video:
Prior to this, Hong Kong's best Chinese film this year was "Goldfinger", which cost more than 40 million Hong Kong dollars, and the birth of "The Siege of the Kowloon Walled City" undoubtedly pushed up the box office ceiling of Hong Kong films and injected a shot in the arm for the sluggish local film industry.
What's more, this achievement has made it surpass Jackie Chan's classic "Police Story 4: Simple Mission" and successfully rank among the top 10 Chinese films in Hong Kong film history at the total box office. PS: So far, the top 10 box office Chinese films in Hong Kong are all 21st century works
In addition, considering that "The Siege of the Kowloon Walled City" has been in theaters for less than three weeks, and it has achieved more than HK$20 million in the first two weeks and the first four days of this week, and is still on the rise, it still has great box office potential that has not yet been released. According to this analysis, some Hong Kong media said that the film will most likely jump to the fifth place in the total box office of Chinese films in Hong Kong film history this weekend, very close to "Cold War 2", which ranked fourth and earned 66.82 million Hong Kong dollars.
So far, the only ones that really rank in front of "The Siege of the Kowloon Walled City" are "The Poisonous Tongue" with more than 115 million Hong Kong dollars, "Tomorrow's War" with more than 81 million Hong Kong dollars, and "Rice Drama Attacking the Heart" with more than 77 million Hong Kong dollars. Can it make it to the top three? In my opinion, the answer is yes.
I checked the box office situation in Hong Kong on the 18th and found that "The Siege of the Kowloon Walled City" had reached 3.988 million Hong Kong dollars as of 10:15 pm, which means that it still has the ability to break 4 million in a single day. Therefore, even if the daily box office falls in the future, it will surpass "Rice Drama Attacking the Heart" in the fourth week at the latest, and it is also a high probability that it will surpass "Tomorrow's War" in the fifth week.
The only uncertainty is whether it can surpass "The Poisonous Tongue" to become the total box office champion of Chinese films in Hong Kong film history.
In all fairness, the quality of "The Siege of the Kowloon Walled City" is much stronger than that of "The Poisonous Tongue", and the cumulative speed of the box office in the early stage is not inferior, so far the word-of-mouth has not fallen, and it is entirely possible to win the championship. However, "The Poisonous Tongue" was in a favorable environment when it came out of the shadow of the epidemic and the public urgently needed entertainment and relaxation, and because of the gimmick of the first local film to break 100 million, it was treated by everyone (the breakthrough of 0 is often the most valued by people), and the current "The Siege of the Kowloon Walled City" does not have these benefits at all, and there is still a gap of more than 50 million Hong Kong dollars, and it is very difficult to complete the transcendence according to the normal box office trend (Note: even if the Hong Kong media hype out all Jackie Chan's movies are out of the top ten, it is not enough).
Of course, if the marketing and publicity techniques of "Tomorrow's War" can be reproduced, and there are rumors similar to "being stolen by movies at the box office" and "being suppressed by theaters" on a large scale, this is another matter. Could there be such an emotional drive? Do you dare to gamble again? We'll see.