When Korean production expertise meets Vietnamese local lore, a new revenue model emerges — one that goes beyond selling finished films.

 Poster of ‘Lầu Chú Hỏa’ (provided by Hive Media Corp)

The latest box office hit from Hive Media Corp — the studio behind Seoul Spring and Insiders — is not a Korean film. It is a Vietnamese horror film, Lầu Chú Hỏa, based on urban legends surrounding a real mansion in Ho Chi Minh City. Released in Vietnam on June 12, the film surpassed 500,000 admissions within its first week, topping the local box office at number one, and broke even after three weeks with cumulative revenue exceeding 70 billion dong (approximately 4 billion KRW). It marks Hive Media Corp's first foray into overseas investment and production — a result born from combining Korean production and development expertise with locally rooted subject matter.

Korean Know-How Meets Vietnamese Legend

Lầu Chú Hỏa is a co-production between Hive Media Corp and Runup Vietnam, the Vietnamese subsidiary of Korean company RUNUP Company. The film adapts urban legends attached to a real building in downtown Ho Chi Minh City — including tales of a mansion with 99 doors and a ghost in white — as Vietnam's first found footage horror film (a format in which characters appear to be filming themselves). The bold direction of debut filmmaker Hùng Trần, born in 1994, combined with the naturalistic performances of a cast of unknown actors, generated strong word of mouth among local audiences. A score of 8.6 out of 10 from over 5,000 ratings on Vietnam's MoMo platform further reflects that reception.

This box office performance is not an isolated experiment. RUNUP Company has been methodically pursuing the Southeast Asian market, establishing local subsidiaries in Singapore in 2023 and Vietnam in 2024. Last year, the Vietnamese remake of The Last Ride — released locally as The Last Wish — topped the Vietnamese box office for two consecutive weeks. This May, the studio released Thẩm Mỹ Viện Âm Phủ (a Vietnamese-language horror-comedy), followed by Lầu Chú Hỏa in June. Whereas the previous dominant model involved exporting finished Korean content, a new growth strategy is emerging: producing content from scratch that reflects local culture and sensibility.

Notably, Lầu Chú Hỏa competed simultaneously in Vietnamese cinemas alongside Colony. June's Vietnamese box office featured an unusual three-way contest at the top: Vietnamese horror film Ma Xó (14.2 billion dong), Korean zombie thriller Colony (5.7 billion dong — the top-grossing Korean film in Vietnam for 2026), and Lầu Chú Hỏa, all occupying the upper tier at the same time.

Where Colony relies on the brand power of Korean cinema, Lầu Chú Hỏa transplants production capability itself into the local market. Two distinct formulas for Korean film's entry into Southeast Asia are now coexisting.

Two Southeast Asia Playbooks

This dynamic reveals two parallel paths for Korean film's expansion into Southeast Asia. One is the Colony model — a "finished-film export" approach that drives box office performance in Southeast Asian theaters with Korean-made productions. The other is the Lầu Chú Hỏa model — a "production export" approach in which Korean studios develop and produce local films using their own development and production know-how. The former depends on the brand power of Korean cinema; the latter transplants the production capability itself.

Challenges remain, however. Lầu Chú Hỏa drew local criticism for a screenplay lacking in depth and a third act that struggled with pacing. A localization strategy does not automatically guarantee genre-level polish. Furthermore, on June 19, Vietnam's Film Department issued an official directive expressing concern about an oversaturation of horror films — raising questions about the long-term viability of a localization strategy concentrated in the horror genre. The path to "production export" that Lầu Chú Hỏa has opened will only mature into a true industry model when it proves capable of expanding beyond horror into other genres.

Sources

• Munhwa Ilbo, "'Seoul Spring' Producer's Lầu Chú Hỏa Takes No. 1 at Vietnamese Box Office" (2026.06.18)

• Cine21, "[Focus] Global Projects: A New Path for Korean Cinema?" (2026.06.26)

• Edaily, "Vietnamese Film Lầu Chú Hỏa, Produced by Korean Studio, Tops Local Box Office" (2026.06.18)

• Việt Giải Trí, "Lầu Chú Hỏa vượt mốc 70 tỷ đồng" (2026.06.28)

• Tuổi Trẻ Online, "Chuyện hiếm thấy ở phòng vé Việt" (2026.06.22)