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CJ CGV is taking big steps in the global movie industry. The overseas sales and profit of the company for the 2nd quarter this year have significantly increased compared with the same period last year, in the markets including Turkey, China and Vietnam. According to the report released on August 10, its sales in China during the quarter was 70.2 million USD with a profit of 2.71 million USD. And following its acquisition of Mars Entertainment, a cinema chain in Turkey last year, CJ CGV earned 38 million USD in sales with 1.31 million USD in profit in the same period. However, the most impressive is the company's performance in Vietnam. CGV Vietnam has reached 33.94 million USD in sales and 3.67 million USD in profit, where the film industry has been gradually growing over the last few years. Among all its overseas territories, CJ CGV is seeing the biggest amount of profit as well as the highest profitability from this relatively early stage market. CGV Vietnam is boosting the box office growth through its strategic distribution, customized support for local films and human resources development for the local film industry. KWAK Dongwon, CEO of CGV Vietnam has replied to our email interview to tell us about his strategy and plans in Vietnam.

 

 

Despite its good growth potential, the movie genres in Vietnam had been limited to several Hollywood franchises and local horror/comedy titles significantly relaying on a few number of famous cast until recently. For a movie industry to develop, having diverse genres in the market is an important prerequisite. So we decided to provide selective foreign and local movie projects with well customized film marketing and PR based on in depth analyses on moviegoers' taste and behavior from the very early stages of film planning and production, in addition to helping local studio partners to come up with gripping narratives. By doing so Kong: Skull Island has earned 7.20 million USD. And a few months later, Em Chua 18 has replaced the record with 7.4 million USD in box office.   

CGV Vietnam's distribution unit consists of a local film team, respective Hollywood major studio teams and an independent film team. They provide well customized distribution services considering local moviegoers behavior as well as the nature of respective film and studio. For most of foreign films we start discussions on marketing and PR strategies in Vietnam one or two years prior to film release, based on long term distribution partnerships. On the local film side, we have a long term distribution relationship with Chanh Phuong, a leading Vietnamese studio which has a proven track record of cooperation with CGV Vietnam on may successful projects. For the strategic distribution services for our local partner studios, CGV distribution professionals engage in every stage from planning, script writing, casting, production and post production in addition to developing and implementing overall marketing and PR programs throughout the project.

 

 

We heard that the project was having difficulties to attract attention from investors at the planning stage, for it seemed to be a higher risk project with a young director making his first comedy title with rookie actor and actress. But after reviewing the script, we thought it may make a good success if its gripping story could well delivered to the audience. Comedy has been a strong genre in Vietnam but audiences were getting tired of repeated release of monotonous stories relying solely on the influence of famous cast. As we had witnessed superior performance of local drama titles with well organized stories such as Yellow Flowers and Green Grass and Hollywood titles Danish Girl and Me before You, we thought that combining engaging stories with local comedy genre would bring comedy lovers back to cinemas. While 2016 was a difficult time for local movies when a lot of moviegoers stayed away even from good local movies after getting disappointed at several sub-quality titles, we are pleased  that we could turnaround the situation quickly with the great success of Em Chua 18. 

  

 

CGV Vietnam has a well structured program to stimulate the development of the local film industry. The first thing we did upon launching of CGV brand in Vietnam was providing significant screening opportunities for local films which had been underserved by local distributors and cinema chains. The second step comprised a set of supporting programs to create successful film projects by applying our project planning, film marketing and PR capabilities to CGV-distributed local films. Following the above two steps, we are now at the stage of building a platform where talented producers and movie directors can gain easier access to quality resources to produce a bigger number of high quality movies. And "SCRIPT WRITING CONTEST" is one of the most important building blocks of the platform. At the same time we are running programs such as "TOTO's Film Making Class" for teenagers who want to make film directors and also providing continuous sponsorship for major film festivals including "Hanoi International Film Festival" with a consistent goal of identifying and cultivating the growth of talented young film makers in Vietnam.

 

What we are aiming at is creating a role model company which does things necessary for the sound development of the movie industry but nobody else can or wants to do, rather than growing influence. We are especially focusing on building high quality cinema infrastructure throughout the country, cultivating the growth of human resources for the industry and diversifying movie genres in the market. With our continued leadership roles on those areas, I am confident that the Vietnamese movie market will grow to become the 5th largest one in the world in terms of annual admissions by 2025.