Editorial | Amid Back to the Past’s success, Hong Kong cinema should look to the future
Although its heyday may be over, the city’s film industry must focus on quality over quantity as it adapts to the changing world of entertainment
The film, about a special agent stranded by a time machine in the Qin dynasty, already set a record for the first-day performance of a local or mainland Chinese film by grossing HK$10.91 million when it debuted on December 31, coming second to the all-time record of HK$20.9 million set by Avengers: Endgame on its opening day in 2019. Whether its success bodes well for the industry in the coming years remains to be seen. But it takes more than a blockbuster to sustain healthy development.
According to data compiled by Hong Kong Box Office Limited, local earnings sank 15.8 per cent from 2024 to HK$1.13 billion in 2025, a 14-year new low. Last year’s best-performing locally produced film, Another World, only made HK$15.1 million, a fraction of the highest grossing of HK$97.6 million by another animation, the Japanese production Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle.
The policy address in 2023 committed an injection of HK$4.3 billion to the Film Development Fund and the CreateSmart Initiative to provide incentives for attracting private sector capital and expanding new markets. Hopefully, it can foster better development.
The heyday of the Hollywood of the East flooding local and overseas markets with comedies, martial arts and triad films is over. But it is too early to mourn the death of the industry when some productions continue to capture the hearts of audiences near and far.
The success of individual films featuring local elements or social issues underlines the diversified taste of the audience. Stories that resonate still have a strong appeal, although they have sadly become rarer as the industry struggles to reinvent itself and adapt to the fast-changing world of entertainment.