Sales for Hong Kong’s annual Cinema Day have begun, with tickets at theatres across the city up for grabs for HK$30.
Organised by the Hong Kong Theatres Association, Cinema Day will take place on Saturday. Ticketing started at the box offices and online at noon on Wednesday.
By 5pm, tickets were still readily available at most theatres, according to the ticketing websites of major cinema chains MCL, Emperor Cinemas, and Broadway Circuit.
There was also no wait time to access the websites by late Wednesday afternoon, although there was a brief five-minute queue when an HKFP reporter visited the MCL and Emperor Cinemas websites at around 2pm.
The movies that appeared most in demand included local dramas The Dumpling Queen and Vital Signs, Marvel Studios’ Thunderbolts*, and an extended cut of The Last Dance, a homegrown melodrama released last year that became the city’s highest-grossing domestic film.
All tickets will be HK$30 on Saturday, except for morning shows for senior citizens, for which the price falls below HK$30.
Saturday will be the city’s third Cinema Day. The event was first introduced in 2023 as part of the government’s “Happy Hong Kong” campaign, meant to boost consumption and the economy amid the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the Hong Kong Theatres Association, the last two Cinema Days broke records for the highest single-day attendance figures.
Hong Kong’s cinema scene has taken a hit since Covid-19, when restrictions ordered the closure of theatres for months at a time. Multiple cinemas, as well as major theatre chain UA Cinemas, have since closed.
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Last year, nine local cinemas shut as overall box office receipts in Hong Kong marked the weakest performance since 2011, according to figures compiled by Hong Kong Box Office Limited.
Most recently, Newport Theatre in Mong Kok and President Theatre in Causeway Bay – both operated by Newport Circuit – closed in April. The closures left Hyland Theatre in Tuen Mun as the company’s last cinema.
