Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Ngoc Thien informed the National Assembly Thursday that every year 240 foreign films are imported, but just 40 Vietnamese films are produced. Vietnamese films are vastly outnumbered by foreign films in the local cinema market, he said.

There is currently no regulation that limits film imports, hence the dominance of foreign films, the minister said.

Vietnam needs to improve production and promotion of films by attracting investment for producing local films, he added.

Another measure is to use technical barriers like censorship to prevent inappropriate foreign movies from being distributed in the market, Thien said.

The minister also noted that Vietnam currently has many movies earning high revenues of up to VND200 billion ($8.5 million). 

In the first quarter of 2019, three movies raked in over VND100 billion ($4.3 million) in revenue: Furie (Hai Phuong), Winning Back My Pregnant Wife (Cua Lai Vo Bau) and Trang Quynh (Dr Quynh). Notably, only six movies have crossed this mark in the last six years.