Hong Kong’s box office has bounced back by 25% in the first half of 2026 led by record-breaking Chinese New Year hit Night King, reversing an annual downward trend of recent years.
Total box office takings reached $84.6m (HK$664m). up almost 25% year-on-year, which were generated from 142 first-run releases, including 17 local productions, according to data compiled by Hong Kong Box Office, a subsidiary of Hong Kong Motion Picture Industry Association (MPIA) and Hong Kong Theatres Association.
The organisation also provided the total box office takings that combine Hong Kong and the tiny neighbouring enclave Macao, which stood at $89.5m (HK$702.43m).
Jack Ng’s hostess bar comedy Night King and Longman Leung’s crime thriller Cold War 1994 took the top two spots, with takings of $15m (HK$118.1m) and $4.86m (HK$38.08m) respectively. Both were produced and distributed by Edko Films. The former became the fourth local film to cross the HK$100m ($12.75m) milestone and ended as the third biggest local film of all time.
Philip Yung’s lottery comedy The Snowball On A Sunny Day, distributed by Mei Ah Entertainment also during Chinese New Year, came third in the local top five, with takings of $2.09m (HK$16.4m); followed by Herman Yau’s self-financed LGBTQ+ drama We’re Nothing At All ($1.58m/HK$12.36m) and Ciao, CFO ($1.36m/$10.7m), best film winner at the Hong Kong Film Awards. The latter two titles were distributed locally by Golden Scene.
The top five biggest international features during the first six months were led by Avatar: Fire And Ash with takings of $5.18m (HK$40.6m). Several animations stood out, including Universal Pictures’ The Super Mario Galaxy Movie ($4.67m/HK$36.6m), Toy Story 5 ($4.27m/HK$33.5m) and Hoppers ($2.66m/HK$20.88m), both from Disney. Also in the top five was The Devil Wears Prada 2 ($3.41m /HK$26.73m).
“The summer season has just started, with many family-friendly films on release. The latter half of the year will showcase many quality local and international films,” said the Hong Kong Box Office in a statement. “We hope that the summer season and the second half of the year will continue to sustain the strong momentum seen in the first half.”
Last year, the annual box office shrank 15.79% year-on-year from 2024’s $172.7m (HK$1.34bn) to $145.1m (HK$1.13bn), while 2023’s $183.3m (HK$1.43bn) was 25.5% lower than in pre-pandemic 2019.
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