Unhappy status quo

During the past two weekends, July 19 and 20, children in Hanoi spread the word and invited each other to buy tickets to watch the early screening of the animated film “Detective Conan: Afterimage of the One-Eyed”.

Some children who have just passed the high school transfer exam told each other that it was a “special screening, the ticket price of 50,000 VND is cheap”. All of this shows the excitement of Vietnamese children for a “blockbuster” of Japanese cinema and that the children’s film market is still a fertile land.

“Detective Conan: Afterimage of the One-Eyed” officially hit theaters on July 25, and is likely to dominate the Vietnamese box office for a while, after reaching nearly VND50 billion in ticket sales for two early screening days. About a month earlier, another “Japanese blockbuster” “Doraemon: Nobita and the Adventures in the Picture World ” also dominated the Vietnamese box office in the early days of summer. Released in theaters at the end of May, the 44th episode of the hit Doraemon series quickly earned VND45 billion in ticket sales in just a few days. Not to mention the appearance of a series of other “big” foreign children’s films in the past two summer months, such as “Lilo & Stitch”, “Elio: The Boy from Earth”…

One positive point in the past two summer months is that in 2025, the children's film market will no longer have foreign films dominating the Vietnamese theater system. On International Children's Day, June 1, "De Men: Adventure to the Swamp" by director Mai Phuong and crew was officially released in theaters. Inspired by the work "De Men's Adventures" by writer To Hoai, the film received quite high praise from critics and audiences. Nearly a month later, another Vietnamese animated film was released in theaters: "Trang Quynh Nhi - The Legend of Kim Nguu"...

Despite the encouraging signs, it must be admitted that this summer, like previous years, foreign children's films still dominate the box office. Revenues are quite low compared to film budgets, making domestic filmmakers discouraged and not very enthusiastic about children's films. Limitations in financial capacity, technology, scripts... make most domestic filmmakers incapable of producing theatrical films with quality and duration sufficient to create strong appeal to children and their families...

If we want to change this unhappy status quo, we will certainly need the wholehearted cooperation of many parties.

Source: https://hanoimoi.vn/hien-trang-khong-vui-710555.html