3.3 billion VND that is.
Post-PIFF & VNIFF, Canh Dong Bat Tan (Floating Lives) officially made its nationwide debut last Friday on Oct. 22. On its first day in theaters, the film sparked an instant “ticket fever”, as the Vietnamese press called it: Hoa Binh Cinebox reported approximately 2000 sold tickets and Thang Long Cinema approximately 900. Meanwhile, Megastar Hung Vuong had to increase showtimes in all three branches, recording 1 screening of the film every half hour.
Within the past three days of its opening weekend, approximately 11,000 movie-goers were counted for at theatres Galaxy Nguyen Du & Galaxy Nguyen Trai. At BHD Star Cinema (4th floor of the Maximark 3 mall, District 10), the number of viewers were exceptionally high since this was also the venue of the film’s official premiere event.
To date, the film’s nationwide revenue is at an estimated 3.3 billion VND (~153,000 USD; this number may seem puny in Hollywood-standards, but for the Vietnamese market, anything ‘billion’ within just its opening weekend is already a huge feat). Floating Lives is currently screening 23 official raw copies nationwide, with HCMC, alone, accounting for 17.
Main leads Do Hai Yen & Dustin Nguyen
Director Phillip Noyce & Do Hai Yen reunites since The Quiet American
Hong Kong star Daniel Wu
Via CATPHCM
Viet Channel 
October 25, 2010 at 9:46 PM
That’s a damn good number 165,000 USD (based on Hanoi black market value of USD).
Not any where near the ticket sales of Avatar, but the average ticket cost is roughly 4 USD give or take.
Where as Avatar they charged about 10USD a pop to watch in it 3D. Oh how I am sick of 3D tickets being sold a premium rates.
October 25, 2010 at 10:09 PM
Do you guys have a small summary of the plot? I’m trying to find what the movie is about but I can’t read Vietnamese );
October 25, 2010 at 10:23 PM
it’s based on a very successful novel. it’s about life in deep south of vietnam, with a family consisting of a father, son and daughter who live a nomadic life on a boat where they raise and sell ducks I think. the father is bitter and had burned down their house because his wife left him for another man.
the story picks up when the two children take in a local prostitute that has been severely beaten and gang raped by a mob of angry local women and the prostitute kind of becomes a surrogate mother/lover for the traveling family. although there are problems/drama abound
I haven’t seen the movie or read the book, that’s just based on what I’ve read
October 25, 2010 at 10:24 PM
sorry for the terrible grammar, I whipped that up in about 15 seconds without thinking lol
October 26, 2010 at 1:26 AM
Dustin Nguyen is in Every Freaking Vietnamese movie.
Shit.. if you guys having trouble finding males actors. Hit me up.. Im sure i can be just as good..
No offens Dustin Nguyen, i just think that we should give other males actor a chance, so we can have a wider film industry, it seems like every Vietnam’s film are made by the same group of people.
EXPAND.. !!
October 26, 2010 at 2:16 AM
hit me up !!! for acting !!! i’m very good at playing an extremely bad person, especially a gangster that’s high cocaine (like Tony Montana) i will provide my own cocaine for the part…or for the rest of the cast.
October 26, 2010 at 2:16 AM
just kidding guys =)
October 26, 2010 at 7:00 AM
For anyone who is interested in reading the original short story which was written by Nguyen Ngoc Tu: http://www.viet-studies.info/NNTu/NNTu_CanhDongBatTan.htm 🙂
October 26, 2010 at 10:21 AM
you’re exaggerating or know shit about vietnamese film industry. he started to act in vietnamese films around 2006 with the rebel and while he’s been very active in the industry he’s hardly been in “every movie” or even every major big news movie that’s come out, just happens to be the ones you hear about.
I’m not a dustin fan but someone of his stature being of vietnamese descent is quite rare so I’m glad he’s actively working to contribute to the Viet industry even at 48.
top actors in most film industries come out with around 2-4 movies a year. dustin hasn’t even made that many films a year in vietnam so don’t exaggerate.
October 26, 2010 at 10:28 AM
I’m not sure if this is a state produced movie or one done by a private company but I assume it’s the latter, and we really should be grateful to private companies and the actors who work in their films to improve a very undeveloped industry, without them we wouldn’t even have proper films considering the kind of crap released by the state (there are exceptions, as the recent long thanh cam gia ca actually looks good)
it’s ludicrous to tell dustin to stop acting, rather encourage more and more projects as they become available or are possible due to funding. it’s not as if he has a monopoly on roles at all and has been deliberately cast over a ton of other actors, you just obviously have a very limited knowledge of vietnamese movies being released the past 5 years. It’s funny how I come off as if I’m some dustin uber when I’m really just shaking my head at such a strange comment. You can’t compare HOllywood to Vn’s film industry so DUstin isn’t some self absorbed star who is monopolizing the industry and taking every role, he’s part of a wave of actors helping to make the industry grow…srsly
October 26, 2010 at 1:28 PM
Thank you for the summary blao8!
October 26, 2010 at 5:19 PM
please please! aire this movie here in North America! I’m willing to go and watch it 🙂 *cough* winnipeg, mb, canada* btw 😛
October 27, 2010 at 8:42 PM
I watched it last night with the Wifey, the only comment my wife made, was that Dustin Nguyen is too muscular for his role, but all in all the movie is excellent.
In the credits they had a lot of outside funding and a joint partner ship with Singapore, but I guess that’s for the subtitling.
November 1, 2010 at 9:54 PM
Is Canh Dong Bat Tan showing anywhere in Northern California. Please let me know. thank you.