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Rhino Entertainment Original

Text｜Nan Rumin Editor｜Park Fang

How difficult is it to make Hong Kong movies? In fact, Hong Kong movies have been difficult for a long time.

Recently, Chen Luochao, the producer of "The Besieged City of Kowloon", admitted that some of his Hong Kong colleagues have received news that some mainland film companies have stopped investing in Hong Kong films, which is undoubtedly full of regrets and helplessness. Hong Kong films used to be second only to Hollywood and were the world's second largest film production base, but now they have fallen into such a situation.

Hong Kong films have hit the "limit down"

In fact, Hong Kong movies have been declining for a long time, but this is the first time that Chen Luochao has made the real situation public. According to Chen Luochao, because two Hong Kong movies have performed poorly in the mainland box office recently, some mainland film companies will suspend investment and distribution of Hong Kong movies. It can be said that the recent downturn of "Negotiation Expert" and "Customs Front", which was the first in the summer season, was the last straw that broke the camel's back.

In fact, looking at the development of Hong Kong films in recent years, the market difficulties have already appeared. Hong Kong films have too many market limitations. Most of them are police, gangster, and action types, which leads to a too low box office ceiling. The current highest volume is generally around 1.3 billion. The market has repeatedly confirmed that a mere tens of billions is already the ceiling of Hong Kong films, which is completely incomparable with the three or five billion of domestic films.

Although the upper limit is very low, the lower limit cannot be guaranteed, especially in recent years, after a large number of Hong Kong films failed to even break 100 million, the market price-performance ratio of Hong Kong films has dropped significantly, and they have long been reduced to the foil of the entire market, and their share in the market is getting lower and lower. Under the pressure of market results, the pre-production has also been greatly affected, resulting in a decline in the quantity and quality of Hong Kong films.

(Top 5 Hong Kong Film Box Office in 2024)

It is said that Hollywood blockbusters are declining, and the decline is very obvious. In fact, the decline of Hong Kong films is not much different, and even more serious. Looking at the performance of the Hong Kong film market this year, it is a complete disaster. The current box office champion of Hong Kong films this year, "The Besieged City of Kowloon", only earned more than 600 million yuan. If nothing unexpected happens, this may become the box office champion of Hong Kong films for the whole year. And then it fell off a cliff. "The Temporary Heist" starring Aaron Kwok, Lam Ka-tung and others only achieved more than 200 million yuan.

Next up are the recently released "The Negotiation Expert" and "The Customs Front", both of which are expected to have a box office of 150 million. You should know that these are the essence of Hong Kong movies, continuing the elements of police and gangsters, gunfights, action, etc., which they are best at, and are basically starred by Hong Kong superstars. These are the weapons that Hong Kong has relied on for 30 years, but these things seem to be vulnerable and completely abandoned by the audience.

Looking ahead, the 2023 Hong Kong box office champion was "Golden Finger" starring Tony Leung and Andy Lau, but it only earned 574 million. The 2022 box office champion was "Detective Wars" starring Lau Ching-wan, which only earned 712 million. The peak of Hong Kong films at present is "Raging Fire" in the summer of 2021, which earned 1.329 billion, the highest box office in Hong Kong film history.

On the other hand, domestic films with a box office of 1.3 billion are hardly classified as blockbusters. They need to reach at least 2 billion or even 3 billion to reach the level of blockbusters, not to mention 5 billion+. In today's era where strong emotions influence the market, the single type and elements of Hong Kong films obviously cannot resonate with the audience's emotions. They can only bring some audio-visual pleasure, which can only bring the lowest basic market base and cannot impact the market ceiling.

No Hong Kong films after Infernal Affairs

In the 1980s and 1990s, Hong Kong movies dominated the industry. Whether it was Chow Yun-fat, Chow Sang-hwa, or the Four Heavenly Kings, they produced a large number of superstars, and there were countless classic movies. Hong Kong movies once dominated Asian movies and could compete with Hollywood. But the heyday is gone now.

In fact, the topic of the decline of Hong Kong films is far from today's story, and it does not even belong to recent years. If we really want to trace it back, we have to go back to the period of "Infernal Affairs" in 2001. Even before "Infernal Affairs", Hong Kong films had already entered an irreversible downward cycle. "Infernal Affairs" was just a life-saving shot, allowing Hong Kong films to survive for a few more years.

Since then, it can be said that there has been no Hong Kong film after Infernal Affairs. Of course, there are still classics and hits from time to time, but it is obvious that it can't go back to the peak period. How did this happen? Some people may say that after the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs, Zhang Yimou's Hero was born, and since then, the mainland market has started a mythical journey.

Since the release of "Hero" in 2002, the mainland market has been growing at a rate of 30% for more than ten consecutive years. This serious increase and decrease has greatly restricted the development of Hong Kong films. Since then, Hong Kong film talents have had no choice but to move north, which has further undermined Hong Kong film talents. After many years of repeated changes, the current situation has been formed. Perhaps this is just one of the superficial reasons.

As the godfather of Hong Kong movies, Wong Jing, said, he believes that the decline of Hong Kong movies began in the late 1990s, and the biggest reason is the development of Taiwanese movies. According to him, Hong Kong movies have long been dominated by action movies and action stars as selling points. However, this type of film content has gradually lost its freshness and innovation after repeated and imitating again and again.

Wang Jing believes that the way Hong Kong films were collected at that time was too simple, relying more on Hong Kong. As the second largest market for Hong Kong films, the Taiwanese market introduced a series of local protection policies, which led to a sharp decline in Hong Kong film revenue. On the contrary, Taiwanese films attracted a large number of audiences with their unique literary and artistic atmosphere and profound social significance. This comparison made Hong Kong films lack uniqueness and innovation, and the audience turned to Taiwanese films.

In fact, Hong Kong films in the 1990s had reached their peak, which was the peak of creation and the peak of the market. However, they failed to innovate, create more genres, and diversify their works, thus losing a good opportunity for further development. Of course, Hong Kong's film industry was 30 years ahead of the mainland, and stagnation after the peak was normal.

From a macro perspective, including the economic dimension, the development speed will inevitably slow down after the peak. For example, in 1995, Hong Kong's GDP was nearly 5 times that of Shanghai, but from 2023, Hong Kong's GDP was only 57% of Shanghai. It does not mean that Hong Kong has declined, but that Shanghai has developed faster. The same is true for the development of movies.

Back to the original topic, of course we cannot condemn it with one blow. It is also not advisable for mainland investors to stop investing in Hong Kong films across the board. Hong Kong films have their own space for survival and their own reasons for existence. We also hope that Hong Kong films will pay more attention to text, focus on diversity, and create more high-quality projects.