Singer Pham Anh Khoa (L) poses with a model at the Megastar Cineplex premiere of ‘GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra’

It’s the entrepreneurial spirit that lets Vietnam’s movie buffs watch the latest Hollywood offering on the big screen of a plush cinema soon after its release. The days of waiting forever are well and truly gone.

The first step toward modernity came in 2002, when private companies were finally allowed to build movie theaters.

Comfortable cinemas soon sprung up in Ho Chi Minh City, like Giai Phong Film Studio’s Cinebox, Thang Long, Dong Da, and the theater complex at South Korean-owned Diamond Plaza.

The race is on.

In 2005, the movie distributor and production studio Thien Ngan upped the ante by opening the US$1.5-million Galaxy Cinema on District 1’s Nguyen Du Street followed by a multiplex on Nguyen Trai Street.

Soon after came Megastar Media’s $4.5-million Megastar Cineplex with eight wall-to-wall screens at Parkson Hung Vuong Plaza in District 5.

The Megastar joint venture, founded by Envoy Media Partners and Phuong Nam JSC, went on to build Vietnam’s first international-standard multiplex chain in HCMC, Hanoi, Hai Phong, Bien Hoa and Da Nang.

Their success has put Vietnam squarely in the sights of major Hollywood studios and distributors, no mean feat in a country where just 65 cinemas serve 83 million people, and only a score of them match the theaters in Thailand and Singapore.

ASAP

Thien Ngan, whose name means galaxy in Vietnamese anyway, pioneered the importing of blockbusters in 2003. Films like “X-Men,” “Hero,” “Daredevil,” “Minority Report,” “The Day After Tomorrow,” “The Banquet” and “Casino Royale” filled the cinema despite the steeper ticket prices.

With Galaxy and Megastar in the picture, moviegoers no longer have to wait weeks to see a blockbuster the rest of the world is raving about.

They happily join long queues to get a VND80,000 ($4.50) ticket. One fanatic even confessed to lining up four times without success to watch “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.”

Between them, Thien Ngan and Megastar import most of the foreign feature films screened in Vietnam.

Thien Ngan wouldn’t tell Thanh Nien Weekly how it gets the rights to the latest releases, but Megastar was more accommodating.

“We don’t buy the films upfront,” said Su Lee, general manager of Megastar Distribution.

“We have a long-term relationship with big names like Warner Bros, Universal, Pixar, Dreamworks, Paramount and Walt Disney built on trust. Our rule is: everyone wins. The more films come in, the more the audiences, market and business grow.”

Before coming to Vietnam, Su Lee worked for Warner Bros in Los Angeles, Japan and India, and Paramount in Los Angeles.

He predicts Vietnam will have a healthy cinema industry within three to five years.

“Almost all Vietnamese audiences love action films and romantic comedies. Animated films also interest them,” Lee said.

“I can proudly state that Megastar screens some of the best animations, like ‘Kungfu Panda,’ ‘Shrek 3,’ ‘Bee Movie,’ ‘Ratatouille,’ ‘Wall-E,’ ‘Madagascar 2,’ and lately, ‘Up’ and ‘Ice Age 3.’”

“Award-winning art house movies is another direction we are taking. Films like ‘No Country for Old Men’ have a narrower appeal but are definitely worth screening.”

Marketing and PR are vital

For the premiere of “GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra,” Lee hired models and invited celebrities. For “Hannah Montana,” he organized singing contests with free movie tickets for the winners. Lee also accompanied Miss Vietnam 2006 Mai Phuong Thuy and Vietnamese press to the world premiere of “Transformers 2” in Japan in June.

“As well as showing the films, we have to make interesting presentations for the audiences, like our foyer props for ‘Star Trek,’ ‘Transformers 2’ and ‘GI Joe,’” Lee said.

“Vietnam’s market is small compared to Japan, Korea or Britain, but the big Hollywood names still want to expand here.

“As for the problem of piracy, many investors admit that it is their greatest challenge. But I think maybe, with more right than wrong and more success than failure, we can develop the market as hoped,” Lee said.

Reported by Kim