Vietnam’s local film business is walking into Busan with a new kind of leverage. In 2025, Vietnamese films crossed VND3 trillion ($114 million) at the domestic box office and beat international titles at home for the first time. Bee Entertainment is using that milestone as its pitch at the Asian Contents & Film Market, where it is shopping a genre-heavy slate built for 2027.
Horror leads the export slate
Psychological horror Arithmadtic sits at the front of the line-up. Set in an elite international school and styled after Dark Academia, the film follows a transfer student’s uneasy bond with a teacher as supernatural incidents crack the school’s polished image. Anh Thu, Lam Thanh My and Phuong Tra My are among the cast; Irving Ly directs. The film is dated for January 2027.
Bee is pairing Arithmadtic with three more features across 2027:
- The Step-Mother (Q2), about a boy and his stepmother testing the line between strictness and care.
- How to Find a Fortune in 60 Days (Q3), an action-comedy family drama from Pom Nguyen, whose first two The Corpse films took more than VND280 billion ($10.7 million) combined.
- Dealing With a Ghost (Q4), a horror romantic comedy from Le Ha Nguyen.
TV gives buyers a volume play
The series slate is long-form and built for reach. The Unrecognized Heir, an 80-episode family drama, began airing on VTV9 in December 2025 and has already drawn 1 billion views across social platforms, per Bee. Two more titles are in motion: A Deal With God, a 65-episode family fantasy-comedy, and Destined to Find You, an 80-episode romance in post-production.
Why the domestic number matters
The $114 million figure is not just a local record; it changes the framing for rights buyers. Bee is at Busan looking for investment, co-development, distribution and licensing deals. A slate anchored by a proven domestic market gives partners the “local box office as proof of concept” argument that sellers in other fast-rising Asian markets have used before.
For media planners and platform buyers, the signal is that Vietnamese content is graduating from festival curiosity to commercial catalogue. The mix of horror, comedy and long-running family drama offers different windows: features for theatrical and premium licensing, TV episodes for ad-supported and linear slots.
Parent Bee Comm, founded in 2009, also produces the Vietnamese edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and the social-impact programme Mai Am Gia Dinh Viet, giving the slate a company with local production depth behind it.
What to watch
Buyers should watch whether Arithmadtic secures regional distribution before its January 2027 release and whether Bee closes rights deals for the 80-episode titles. The ACFM runs through October; the 31st Busan International Film Festival closes October 15.
Source: Variety
