Rewriting cinema history

Hong Kong cinemas have tried strategies to attract more patrons, including permanent ticket price cuts, bundling different movie tickets for sale, and launching Cinema Days, offering tickets for all movies for just HK$30. Despite these efforts, Yuen believes that, ultimately, it is the content that moves audiences.

Hong Kong cinemas have continued with innovative practices such as converting select screenings into intimate venues for live stand-up comedy shows and concerts, as well as broadcasting sporting events, esports competitions, and musical performances. However, Yuen says that these creative offerings remain supplementary. The revenue from such endeavors is limited and challenging to sustain, and can never replace the audience influx that quality movies attract.

In this aspect, cinemas are rather passive, Yuen said.

He says that theaters can only adjust film schedules based on box office performance to ensure that more viewers can access popular films. They cannot participate in film production, or forecast which movies will capture audiences' heart. The emergence of a diverse entertainment era has reshaped audience preferences, presenting a challenge not only for Hong Kong's film industry, but also for filmmakers globally.

Yuen points to box office numbers showing that the latest productions in the Marvel superhero series are struggling to replicate the successes of 2018 and 2019, hinting at potential audience fatigue for such intellectual property. As for local productions, audience tastes have also evolved.

Citing recent blockbusters, he notes that while films like Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In boast stunning action sequences and a stellar cast, adhering to a traditional formula that typically leads to success, the triumph of The Last Dance — a pure feature film — indicates that films capable of captivating audiences and prompting them to invest in cinema tickets don't necessarily require flashy special effects or striking visuals.

What makes a movie captivating? In Yuen's opinion, audiences don't often vocalize their preferences in advance, preferring to convey their responses to the film industry through box office figures.

To some extent, he believes that future box office revenues will polarize, with top-tier films creating progressively higher revenues, solidifying their status as "phenomenal" movies, while average-quality films will have mounting problems drawing audiences to theaters. So the number of cinemas may continue to drop.