The all-star cast of the family movie “Old Father” – Photo: Courtesy of producer

The previous record was held two years ago by “Cua lai vo bau” (Flirt with pregnant wife again), which also starred Tran Thanh, with domestic ticket sales reaching VND191.8 billion. Action film “Hai Phuong” (Furie) collected up to VND200 billion, but the film was screened in the United States, Canada and China.

Released on March 5, “Old Father” has set new records for the fastest Vietnamese movie to reach ticket sales of VND100 billion and VND200 billion. The film collected VND100 billion in just four days after being released, beating the previous record of six days held by "Gai Gia Lam Chieu 3" (The Last Egg 3).

On March 13 only, “Old Father” collected VND31 billion, the highest ticket sales in a single day among Vietnamese movies. The film is expected to break some other records as it remains popular at the cinemas even 10 days after its release.

“I’m so moved that words cannot describe how very happy I am that the film is loved by the viewers,” shared Tran Thanh, actor, director and producer of “Old Father”.

According to Box Office Vietnam, 2.4 million tickets of “Old Father” have been sold. This encouraging result is expected to help the local cinema industry recover from the negative effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Bo Gia” centers around Sang, an old motorbike rider who lives in a low-income neighborhood in HCMC. Although Sang is poor and suffers from an illness, he always sacrifices himself for his family.

The film’s production cost is estimated at VND23 billion (US$1 million), with an all-star cast comprising Tran Thanh, People’s Artist Ngoc Giau, Le Giang, Tuan Tran, Ngan Chi, La Thanh, Quoc Khanh, Le Trang, Che Nguyen Quynh Chau and Minh Tu.

The “Old Father” movie is an adaptation of a web drama of the same name directed by Vu Ngoc Dang. The web drama version, which was released on YouTube in early 2020, was the most viewed web drama in Vietnam with more than 90 million views for its five episodes. Seven Vietnamese films with the highest domestic ticket sales to date comprise “Old Father” with VND200 billion and counting, “Flirt with pregnant wife again” with VND191.8 billion, “Mat Biec” (Dreamy Eyes) with VND180 billion, “Tiec trang mau” (Perfect Strangers) with VND175 billion, “Em chua 18” (Jailbait) with VND171 billion, “Furie” with VND160 billion (up to VND200 billion from both local and foreign markets) and “The Last Egg 3” with VND165 billion.

SGT

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