Another hit flick, but is it enough to save city's film industry?

Despite Back To The Past breaking records, deeper woes plague HK's ailing sector

- Magdalene Fung Hong Kong Correspondent

Raymond Lam (centre) reprising his role as Qin Shi Huang in the sequel to TVB's 2001 hit drama series A Step Into The Past. PHOTO: SHAW ORGANISATION

(SHAW ORGANISATION)

Hong Kong's latest hit flick, Back To The Past, has made history, smashing the city's box-office records and giving its struggling film industry a fresh glimmer of hope.

The time-travel comedy starring actors Louis Koo and Raymond Lam has become Hong Kong's highest-grossing Chinese-language film debut of all time not just on opening day alone but also for the whole of its first week of screening.

The blockbuster - which raked in HK$10.9 million (S$1.8 million) in Hong Kong when it debuted on New Year's Eve, and HK$45.4 million that week — beat previous records set in 2024 by actor Dayo Wong's The Last Dance and Lam's Twilight Of The Warriors: Walled In, as well as a 2023 record by Wong's A Guilty Conscience.

With distribution to over a dozen countries, including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia and the Netherlands, the 107-minute movie's global takings have totalled US$8.2 million (S$10.4 million) so far.

But is one or two blockbuster hits a year enough to save Hong Kong's film industry, which appears to be headed towards terminal decline?

Back To The Past's strong showing comes after a disappointing year for the industry at the box office, which saw 2025 ticket sales drop 16 per cent from 2024 after having fallen 6 per cent from 2023.