China’s latest blockbuster film, Lost in Hong Kong, has been smashing box office records that were set just weeks earlier by fellow home-grown hit Monster Hunt.
Just five days after its mainland theatrical début, Lost in Hong Kong has already grossed over RMB800 million. In its opening weekend, the film brought in a record-breaking RMB680 million.
Lost in Hong Kong is the hotly anticipated sequel to 2012 comedy Lost in Thailand, which became the first Chinese film to cross over the RMB1 billion mark, selling more tickets than even James Cameron’s Avatar.
The success of the film unleashed a flood of mainland tourists onto Thai landmarks—sometimes to the consternation of locals. At Chiang Mai University, the influx of Lost in Thailand fans precipitated a security crackdown on Chinese visitors sneaking into school canteens and classrooms.
A poll conducted by the university in February 2014 found that 80 per cent of 2,200 Chiang Mai residents polled said they were highly displeased with Chinese behaviour.
With numbers of mainland visitors to Hong Kong experiencing a year-on-year decline of 9.8 per cent in July, it remains to be seen whether the Lost in Hong Kong effect will prove as potent as the Lost in Thailand effect.
