Felix Chong’s The Goldfinger has made an impressive $3.2m (HK$25m) in its home market of Hong Kong, reinvigorating the declining box office for local films.
The financial crime drama, which reunites superstars Tony Leung Chiu-wai with Andy Lau for the first time since closing out the hit Infernal Affairs trilogy two decades ago, has topped the Hong Kong box office since opening on December 30.
Released by Emperor Motion Pictures, it crossed $3.2m (HK$25m) after just nine days (as of January 7), making it the second biggest Hong Kong film since last year’s Chinese New Year hit A Guilty Conscience.
It marks a strong start to the year for the Hong Kong box office, which last year finished 25.5% below pre-pandemic 2019. While A Guilty Conscience was a phenomenal success and the overall box office champion of 2023 – taking a staggering $14.72m (HK$115.06m) – only three Hong Kong films crossed $2.6m (HK$20m) last year.
The cumulative box office of The Goldfinger has already surpassed the final box office of Time Still Turns The Pages, Over My Dead Boy and In Broad Daylight, the second, third and fourth highest grossing local films of 2023, ushering a new momentum to Hong Kong films at the start of 2024.
The Goldfinger was positioned as an eagerly anticipated year-end blockbuster and was rolled out in eight territories on a day-and-date release with Hong Kong, including mainland China where it has collected $45.7m (RMB326m) as of January 7, Malaysia (through GSC Movies), Singapore (Shaw Organisation), Taiwan (Long Shong Entertainment Multimedia), North America (Niu Vision Media) and Australia (CMC Pictures).
In the UK and Ireland, Trinity CineAsia began previews on December 30 before opening it on January 5. It had taken $87,000 (£68,337), including previews, as of January 8.
It ranked eighth in the overall global box office over the past weekend, reaching a cume of $51.4m.
The next release will be in Thailand through M Pictures on February 8, followed by South Korea through First Run. Upcoming releases in Japan (Culture Entertainment) and Benelux (CMC Pictures) are undated.
International sales are handled by Hong Kong’s Emperor Motion Pictures.
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