'The Four Guardians' reached 227 billion VND, did Tran Thanh 'manipulate' Tet movies?

As of the morning of February 4, Tran Thanh's "The Four Guardians" had earned 227 billion VND in revenue, while "The Billionaire Kiss" earned 61 billion VND, and "Love by Mistake" was far behind with only 13 billion VND.

In the 3 films, Tran Thanh is the director, producer and actor in “The Four Guardians”, and also invested in “Love by Mistake”. Reality shows that “The Four Guardians” has a revenue 17 times higher than “Love by Mistake”.

“Love by mistake best friend” is the next collaboration between director Nguyen Quang Dung and Tran Thanh after “Dat rung phuong Nam” in 2024.

In “Love by mistake with a best friend”, Nguyen Quang Dung collaborated with Diep The Vinh to sit in the director’s chair. He also chose the female lead option which was considered safe since they had achieved success with “Blood Moon Party” which was Kaity Nguyen.

Director Nguyen Quang Dung has always been known for his “good hand” in remake projects. The movie “Blood Moon Party” was released in the midst of the complicated COVID-19 pandemic, cinemas were continuously ordered to close, and audiences were wary of going to crowded public places like cinemas. However, “Blood Moon Party” unexpectedly became a “hundred billion dollar movie” and received many compliments.

“Ranging Years” is also considered another successful remake film by Nguyen Quang Dung, reaching a revenue of 85 billion VND after nearly a month of release in 2018.

However, the “miracle” and the cool hand did not happen with “Love by mistake for a best friend”. Director Nguyen Quang Dung had a “fall” at the box office with the remake of a love triangle in this year’s Tet film season. With 13 billion VND up to now, the road to a hundred billion VND revenue for “Love by mistake for a best friend” is too far.

The name Tran Thanh in the production team seems to be unable to save “Love by mistake for a best friend” in this Tet movie season. Public opinion always questions the dominance and “manipulation” of the name Tran Thanh in the Tet movie market, but “Love by mistake for a best friend” is being left too far behind.

“The Four Guardians” is a purely entertaining film, not praised for its script, but one can still see Tran Thanh's calculation and "optimization" of the appeal of this project.

The “Four Guardians” have the participation (cameo role) and soundtrack performance of a series of attractive “Say Hi Brothers” such as Quan AP, Hung Huynh, Erik, Captain Boy… The “Say Hi Brothers” also landed on the red carpet for the film premiere, enthusiastically promoting the work for Tran Thanh.

The film also "optimized" its appeal with the participation of new faces with "extremely beautiful" appearances, namely two beauty queens Tran Tieu Vy, Nguyen Cao Ky Duyen, and Quoc Anh.

Lunar New Year with its long holiday is always the biggest business season of the year for Vietnamese movies. Released in theaters during Lunar New Year has helped many film projects win big. But of course, no one has won as big as Tran Thanh.

As director Bui Tuan Dung said, “Tran Thanh himself is a personal brand that attracts audiences. Films made by other directors with Tran Thanh’s participation are guaranteed to have huge revenue. Tran Thanh is a star, a name that has affirmed itself in many fields, the audience that admires Tran Thanh is much larger than other names.”

Therefore, the “Tran Thanh effect” and “Tran Thanh brand” were a huge advantage when Tran Thanh brought the film to theaters. In addition, the smart calculations for the cast, the promotion process, the controversy on social networking forums… were enough to help Tran Thanh’s series win big.

With a work of great effort, Thu Trang is also showing that she is capable of reaching a revenue of hundreds of billions with "Billionaire Kiss".