The Hong Kong box office took $3.9m (HK$30.6m) over five days from January 28-February 1, down 37.1% on the same five-day Lunar New Year period in 2024 and 59.3% down on pre-Covid 2019.
The Hong Kong Box Office, which released the data, said that the results were disappointing and hoped that more people would go to the cinemas to support Chinese New Year releases.
Two Hong Kong comedies took the top two places. Hit N Fun topped the chart with $959,715 (HK$7.47m) from Tuesday to Saturday, while My Best Bet ranked second with $744,693 (HK$5.8m).
Hit N Fun follows a boxing trainer who helps an advertising executive fight her boyfriend’s boxing champion mistress in the ring and a washed-up actress prepare for a comeback role in an action film. The ensemble cast includes Gigi Leung, Louise Wong, Chrissie Chau along with Louis Koo, Tony Wu and German Cheung. It is directed by Albert Mak, whose Rob N Roll was a Chinese New Year hit last year and recently won the best screenplay award from the Hong Kong Film Critics Society.
My Best Bet centres on a compulsive gambler and her gambling-hater husband as the couple manoeuvre the twists and turns of their whirlwind marriage. Charlene Choi and Louis Cheung star in the comedy along with Stanley Yau from boy band Mirror and Jeannie Ng. It marks a departure for director Andy Lo whose previous films, Happiness and Once In A Blue Moon, are both dramas.
Hit N Fun and My Best Bet opened on Chinese New Year’s Eve (January 28), while the next four films on the chart opened on the following day (January 29) and their takings were for four days only.
Wuershan’s live-action fantasy epic The Creation Of The Gods II: Demon Force from mainland China landed in third place with $537,381 (HK$4.18m). This second instalment of a trilogy adapted from classical fantasy novel Fengshen Yanyi took $124.3 (RMB895m) as of February 2 in mainland China.
It was followed by Paddington In Peru, the third film in the family adventure franchise, with $350,117 (HK$2.726m); Tsui Hark’s period martial arts film Legends Of The Condor Heroes: The Gallants from mainland China ($328,090/HK$2.55m), which made $75.4 (RMB543m) in mainland China as of February 2; and Hong Kong festive comedy Queen Of Mahjong ($275,066/HK$2.14m), directed by Wong Jing and Patrick Kong.
Nine cinemas were reportedly shut down in Hong Kong last year, reflecting the uncertain future and ongoing challenges of the local film industry.
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