Mockingbird Pictures is positioning Vietnam as an emerging powerhouse in global genre cinema, with executives emphasizing ambitious storytelling and culturally distinctive narratives that transcend regional boundaries.
The real story here might be Bluebells Studios' calculated dominance strategy—sister company to Mockingbird means vertical integration from production through international sales, a power move that gives them control over the entire pipeline.
"Phi Phong: The Blood Demon" accumulated 2.1 million admissions and grossed $6.9 million in Vietnam alone (released late April during Hung Kings Festival). "Hell Trotter" crossed VND100 billion ($3.8 million) threshold. North American release for "Phi Phong" is scheduled May 29.
While Mockingbird frames this as a Vietnamese cultural invasion, the numbers tell a more calculated story—Bluebells Studios and its sister company have engineered a production-to-sales pipeline that's exploiting Vietnam's underserved horror market before anyone else caught on.
Mockingbird Pictures is bringing serious firepower to Cannes this year, and the Vietnamese sales and distribution company isn't hiding its ambitions. Anchoring their commercial slate at the film market is "Zero Meets Hero," a multigenerational comedy-drama from Huỳnh Lập—the director behind "The Ancestral Home," which remains one of Vietnam's highest-grossing domestic films ever made. But here's where it gets interesting: while "Zero Meets Hero" serves as the prestige anchor, it's actually two horror titles that are setting box office ablaze back home.
"Phi Phong: The Blood Demon" has become the crown jewel of Mockingbird's lineup after demolishing records during its late April release coinciding with Vietnam's Hung Kings Festival and Reunification holiday. Directed by Do Quoc Trung and produced by Bluebells Studios—the sister company to Mockingbird Pictures—the supernatural horror film accumulated more than 2.1 million admissions and grossed close to $7 million, making it the highest-earning local horror title in Vietnamese box office history.
Let that sink in: this isn't just a hit, it's a cultural moment that's rewriting what domestic productions can achieve against international competition. The international rollout strategy reveals serious strategic thinking—or desperation to monetize while the momentum is hot. "Phi Phong" hits North American theaters on May 29, followed by Cambodia on June 19, and then Malaysia, Brunei, Australia, and New Zealand on June 25.
Meanwhile, "Hell Trotter," which opened alongside "Phi Phong" during that same late-April holiday frame, has crossed Vietnam's VND100 billion threshold—equivalent to approximately $3.8 million. That film draws on Khmer folklore surrounding the legend of the five-toed pig, a creature associated with restless spirits and supernatural omens, directed by Luu Thanh Luan and produced by Vo Thanh Hoa. Rounding out the slate is action thriller "Saigon Birthday Boy," the feature directing debut of Lam Vissay, who also stars.
The film delves into clandestine criminal networks and co-stars Nguyen Phuong Tra My, lead of "The Third Wife"—a multiple award-winner at the Toronto, San Sebastián, and Chicago film festivals. That's festival credibility attached to a project designed for commercial appeal, which is exactly the kind of balancing act that suggests Mockingbird knows what it's doing. "We are seeing Vietnamese filmmakers become increasingly ambitious in both scale and storytelling, and Mockingbird aims to bring these culturally distinctive stories to wider global audiences," said Phong Duong, business director of Mockingbird Pictures and an executive producer at Bluebells Studios.
But the real narrative underneath that polished quote is the vertical integration between Bluebells Studios (production) and Mockingbird Pictures (sales and distribution)—a corporate structure that gives them control from creation to international sales desk. Whether that translates to genuine cultural impact overseas or just fat profit margins for investors remains to be seen, but make no mistake: Vietnam's film industry is no longer sleeping on its own potential.
