The Hong Kong films released in 2024 ranked from worst to best, led by The Last Dance

From We 12 to Papa, Fly Me to the Moon and The Last Dance, our ranking of the Hong Kong films that hit cinemas in the course of the year

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Dayo Wong Tze-wah and Michelle Wai Sze-nga in a still from The Last Dance, one of the best films released in Hong Kong in 2024. Photo: Emperor Motion Pictures

Published: 6:14pm, 24 Dec 2024Updated: 12:40pm, 26 Dec 2024

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. Such was the unusually volatile nature of the Hong Kong film business in 2024 that both statements are certifiably correct when it comes to assessing the state of the city’s filmmaking industry.

Right after we published our 2023 film ranking a year ago this week and sounded an optimistic note about the outlook for the industry, a harsh reality check arrived a few days later with the news that Hong Kong box office takings over the Christmas holiday period in 2023 had fallen to a 20-year low.

A similarly contradictory pattern was seen in 2024.

On the one hand the most successful Hong Kong films carried on the record-breaking form that began in 2022 with much fanfare.

Martial arts epic Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In became the city’s most-watched local film by audience numbers in the summer, and then the funeral drama The Last Dance became the latest film to take the title of highest-grossing Chinese-language film ever in Hong Kong, having taken in more than HK$143 million (US$18.4 million) as of press time.

(From left) director Soi Cheang Pou-soi, producer John Chong Ching and novelist Yu Yi celebrated the box office achievement of Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In at The Metroplex at Kowloonbay International Trade & Exhibition Centre, on June 30, 2024. The occasion also marked the last ever screening at the cinema before it shut down.

On the other hand, overall audience numbers were falling, at least seven cinemas closed permanently, and most industry insiders were convinced that the film business is in a slump. Worse still, the number of productions being greenlit in the foreseeable future is also projected to fall drastically.