Hong Kong film once again lost to capital. " Kowloon Walled City: The Siege ", which had a huge reputation, actually lost to " Peacekeeping Riot Squad " which had a lot of bad reviews! Sure enough, the decline of Hong Kong films did not usher in spring.
The "May Day" is a long holiday period after the Spring Festival and National Day. Therefore, competition is fierce during the May Day period every year, and this year is no exception, with 8 new films released. Among them are traffic stars Wang Yibo , Yang Mi , etc., as well as powerful Hong Kong actors Louis Koo and Ren Xianqi. It can be said that this May 1st show is a competition for hegemony.
However, although many movies were released during this May Day holiday, the winners and losers were already decided on the first day of the May Day holiday. Among them, the one with the best reputation should be Louis Koo's new film "The Siege of Kowloon Walled City", while the one with the highest box office is Wang Yibo's "Peacekeeping Riot Squad". On the day of their premiere, the two films exceeded 100 million in box office.
Within three days of its release, the total box office of May Day movies successfully exceeded 1 billion, and the two movies "The Siege of Kowloon Walled City" and "Peace Keeping Riot Squad" also exceeded 200 million box office, and in addition to these two movies , there is also a comedy film "Thelma and Louise " starring Jia Bing and Xiao Shenyang. As for Yang Mi's new film " Nothing Can't Be Solved by a Hot Pot", it has not yet exceeded 50 million, so it can be said that it has already failed.
" Kowloon Walled City " is the only Hong Kong film among the eight films, and it is produced in Hong Kong from the actors to the production. Therefore, this is a rare pure Hong Kong film in recent years. In addition, "The Siege of Kowloon Walled City" was also shortlisted for the official section of the "Midnight Screening" of the 77th Cannes International Film Festival. This is the first Chinese-language film to be shortlisted for this screening section in 11 years after "". The film still has some strength. And the film did not disappoint. In addition to being the first film to exceed 100 million on May 1st, it was also the first to be screened and the first to be distributed. It can be seen from this that the film can be said to be full of confidence.
It is understood that the film is adapted from the comic "Kowloon Walled City". It is a major comic production that returns after 2016's "龙虎门" after an absence of 8 years. With an investment of 300 million, the project was established in 2018, started in 2021, and released in 2024, which took up to 6 years. When it was screened, the reputation of "Kowloon Walled City" began to ferment. It was praised for its explosive fighting scenes and punches. It is a must-see work during the May Day holiday. Therefore, the film's pre-sale box office has soared, reaching 80 million, making it the film with the highest pre-sales during this May Day period.
Therefore, judging from the feedback from the screenings, "The Siege of Kowloon Walled City" is indeed good and has the potential to be a hit. It has received rave reviews online. The quality of this kind of promotion can be said to be unique among May Day. For this reason Many people are betting that it will win the May Day box office championship. Even People's Daily Online commented, praising the film as very popular.
But I didn’t expect that even though “Kowloon Walled City” had a huge reputation and scored 7.5 points on Douban, it lost directly to “Peacekeeping Riot Squad” which had a bad reputation due to poor film schedule. The film's final box office is predicted to be around 500 million, and for a large-scale production with an investment of 300 million, it can be said that the film will eventually lose money.
It is understood that the plot of "Peacekeeping Riot Squad" starring Wang Yibo and Huang Jingyu has been criticized for having "too many routines and too weak a plot." Some netizens pointed the finger at the actors, saying "the acting is terrible, especially Wang Yibo's usual bad acting."
Some netizens said that the film completely insulted the peacekeeping forces. After all, as a peacekeeping and anti-riot team, every word and deed represents a country, so the actors should reflect our demeanor as a big country. But whether Huang Jingyu, Wang Yibo or Gu Jiacheng are still in the category of idols, they are more than handsome but not tough enough. Not to mention fighting against terrorists in Africa, even being a security guard can only earn a dead salary. No wonder netizens ridiculed this day.
However, even though it was ridiculed, theaters still allocated all the films to this film, and the daily film schedules were around 25%.On the other hand, "Kowloon Walled City", which had a huge reputation, only had 9.4% of the films scheduled on the day of its premiere, and only 10.9% on the second day. It can be said that the two days of film schedules combined are not as good as the one-day film schedule of "Peace Keepers".
And "Peacekeeping Riot Squad" has such a high film schedule. In addition to being a theme-themed work and having official endorsement, it is also because the film stars traffic star Wang Yibo, so it has many fans to support it. This is also the reason why "Kowloon Walled City" obviously received great reviews, but its final schedule and box office were not as good as the former. This also means that Louis Koo once again lost to traffic and capital.
It can be seen that in the current movie environment, even if the quality of the film is excellent, but without capital support, it may still become a loser due to traffic in the end. "Peacekeeping Riot Squad" is just the opposite. It won the box office but lost in word of mouth.
