Author: Wang Xiaobo
On October 10th, the box office of "Tomorrow's War" in the Hong Kong film market exceeded 68.01 million Hong Kong dollars, surpassing the box office of the Korean film " Travel to Busan " (68 million Hong Kong dollars) in Hong Kong, and became the Asian film in the history of Hong Kong films in China. Box office champion. Two days before
, the film just surpassed the 66.82 million Hong Kong dollars of " Chills 2" with a box office of 67 million Hong Kong dollars, becoming the box office champion of Chinese-language films in Hong Kong film history.
broke the record again after only two days, which fully demonstrated that this sci-fi film starring Gu Tianle, Liu Qingyun , Carina Lau was directed by Gu Tianle and was deeply loved by Hong Kong audiences, as well as Gu Tianle's strong box office appeal in Hong Kong .
But at the same time, we must also see that after "Tomorrow's War" broke the box office record of Chinese films in Hong Kong film history twice, Hollywood blockbusters have gradually dominated the Hong Kong film market since the beginning of this century.
So far this year, the annual box office champion of the Hong Kong Film Market is still "Top Gun 2" starring Tom Cruise , with a box office of more than 100 million Hong Kong dollars.
Since Stephen Chow 's " Kung Fu " won the Hong Kong film market box office champion with HK$61.28 million in 2004, from 2005 to the present 18 years, the Hong Kong film market box office champion has been occupied by Hollywood blockbusters every year.
From 2017 to 2019, Hong Kong films did not even make it into the top ten of Hong Kong's annual box office for three consecutive years. Such a dilemma is very different from the heyday of Hong Kong cinema.
The golden age of Hong Kong films, Hong Kong films swept the top ten at the box office
The 1980s and 1990s were the golden age of Hong Kong films, with an annual output of over 300 films and more than 20,000 employees. Chow Yun-fat , Stephen Chow and Jackie Chan), Jet Li , Andy Lau , Tony Leung and other Hong Kong movie stars are popular all over the world Chinese world. Hong Kong is therefore known as the "Hollywood of the East".
At that time, Hong Kong films dominated the local film market in Hong Kong, and it was difficult for Hollywood blockbusters to even squeeze into the top ten of the annual box office.
In 1982, it was the first time in the history of Hong Kong films that the top ten of the annual box office were all swept up by Hong Kong films. The box office champion of in the Hong Kong film market that year was Xu Guanjie 's " Best Partner " (26.04 million Hong Kong dollars), which still maintains the record of the number of Hong Kong films in the Hong Kong local market.
" Shaolin Temple ", which was very popular in the mainland, ranked third with a box office of 16.15 million Hong Kong dollars. The highest-grossing imported film was "Raiders of the Lost Ark", which was only 8.65 million Hong Kong dollars at the box office and was squeezed out of the tenth place.
In 1983, only two Hollywood blockbusters entered the top ten in the Hong Kong box office, and from 1984 to 1986, only one Hollywood blockbuster entered the top ten.
In 1987, Hong Kong films swept the top ten of the Hong Kong film market's annual box office for the second time. In 1992, Hong Kong films swept the top 10 box office charts for the third time. In that era, Hong Kong films not only smashed Hollywood blockbusters in the Hong Kong film market, but also swept across the Taiwan Strait, the global Chinese world, Southeast Asia, Japan, South Korea, and even influenced many Western fans and filmmakers.
However, in 1993, " Jurassic Park " directed by Spielberg became the first Hong Kong box office film to exceed 60 million Hong Kong dollars and won the box office champion of the Hong Kong film market that year.
Since that year, Hollywood blockbusters have appeared more and more in Hong Kong's annual box office TOP10, but Hong Kong films still have the upper hand.
Since the late 1990s, Hollywood blockbusters have dominated the Hong Kong film market.
In 1997, James Cameron directed "Titanic" by . It also received a high box office of more than 100 million Hong Kong dollars. The release of
"Titanic" became a landmark event. Since then, Hollywood blockbusters not only gradually dominated the Hong Kong film market, but also began to dominate the global film market.
In the first few years of this century, although Hong Kong films began to decline, they could still compete with Hollywood blockbusters in the local film market.
In 2001, Stephen Chow's " Shaolin Soccer " broke the Hong Kong Chinese film box office record with 60.74 million Hong Kong dollars and won the annual championship. It was the first Hong Kong local film with a box office of 60 million Hong Kong dollars; 10,000 Hong Kong dollars won the annual championship; in 2004, "Kung Fu" once again broke the Hong Kong box office record with 61.28 million Hong Kong dollars , but this was also the last time a Hong Kong film won the Hong Kong box office annual championship.
For 18 years from 2005 to the present, Hollywood blockbusters have won the annual box office champion of the Hong Kong film market every year, breaking box office records. In 2019, 's "Avengers: Endgame" grossed more than HK$200 million at the Hong Kong box office, which has already surpassed the Chinese-language films released in Hong Kong.
From 2017 to 2019, Hong Kong films failed to rank among the top ten in Hong Kong's annual box office for three consecutive years, in sharp contrast to more than 30 years ago. really can be described as: thirty years Hedong, thirty years Hexi.
In 2020, the new crown epidemic broke out. Taking advantage of the serious impact of the epidemic on American movies, Hong Kong film "The Grandmaster" won the second place in the box office of the Hong Kong film market with a box office of 29.45 million Hong Kong dollars, but the champion was still won by the Hollywood blockbuster " Creed ". "Won.
In 2021, " Anita Mui " won the runner-up in the Hong Kong film market box office with a box office of 61.8 million Hong Kong dollars.
had nine imported films in the top ten of the Hong Kong film market that year, including eight Hollywood blockbusters and a Japanese animation "Ghost Slayer: Wireless Train". The golden age of Hong Kong films is gone forever.
Nowadays, the top 10 box office rankings of Hong Kong film market every year often have two lists, one is the top ten foreign language movies, and the other is the top ten Chinese movies. It seems that the only way to be less embarrassing.
This time, "Tomorrow's War" broke the box office record of Chinese films and even Asian films in the Hong Kong film market. Although it surprised many Hong Kong film fans, like last year's "Anita Mui", it cannot change the Hollywood blockbuster to dominate Hong Kong by itself. situation.
The Hong Kong director went north to open the era of co-production between the mainland and Hong Kong
Fortunately, the main battlefield of Hong Kong films and filmmakers is no longer Hong Kong, and the broader market space and application are in mainland China.
Since the beginning of this century, in the past two decades, with the rapid development of the Chinese mainland film market, Wen Jun , Wang Jing , Chen Jiashang , Chen Kexin , Wu Yusen , Xu Ke , More and more Hong Kong directors such as Lin Chaoxian , Qiu Litao , and Chen Guohui went north to the mainland, opening the era of co-production between the mainland and Hong Kong.
In recent years, mainland China has become the world's second largest film market after North America. In 2020 and 2021, it has defeated North America, which has been severely affected by the epidemic, for two consecutive years, becoming the world's largest film market.
Hong Kong films are part of Chinese films. Although they cannot compete with Hollywood blockbusters in the local film market in Hong Kong, Chinese films jointly produced by Hong Kong filmmakers and mainland filmmakers have beaten American blockbusters many times in the Chinese mainland film market in recent years. .
For example, " Changjin Lake " directed by Hong Kong directors Tsui Hark and Lin Chaoxian and mainland director Chen Kaige fetched 5.775 billion yuan at the box office in mainland China, becoming the box office champion in Chinese film history.
" Changjin Lake Water Gate Bridge " directed by Tsui Hark has a domestic box office of 4.067 billionYuan, " Red Sea Operation " directed by Lin Chaoxian was 3.652 billion yuan, " Mermaid " directed by Stephen Chow was 3.391 billion yuan, and " China Captain " directed by Liu Weiqiang was 2.913 billion yuan.
These works directed by famous Hong Kong directors have achieved remarkable box office results in the mainland.
's "Tomorrow's War" earned more than 68 million Hong Kong dollars at the box office in Hong Kong, breaking the box office records of Chinese and Asian films in Hong Kong. Although this is gratifying, it is still only one-tenth of its mainland box office of 674 million yuan.
It can be seen that the huge capacity and development potential of the Chinese mainland film market is completely incomparable to the small Chinese Hong Kong film market. As the saying goes: Lost in the east, harvested mulberry. The future of Hong Kong films and filmmakers lies in the mainland.
Today, Hong Kong films and filmmakers have integrated with mainland films and filmmakers, and together they will shine for the prosperity and development of Chinese films, and together they will contribute to the expansion and strength of the Chinese film market.
(The Hong Kong movie box office data table in this article is mainly reprinted from the original post "Hong Kong Box Office Top 10 (1969-2019)" by ZYH1607, the owner of the World Movie Box Office, I would like to express my thanks here.)
