14,000 tickets for Teochew screenings of Dear You sell out in 3 hours; 100 more screenings requested

All 14,000 tickets for the 40 additional Teochew-language screenings of the Chinese film Dear You were snapped up in under three hours after sales opened on Monday (Jun 29), cinema operator Golden Village (GV) confirmed.

Tickets went on sale at 3pm through GV's box office counters and online booking channels. The additional screenings, scheduled from Jul 3 to 26, will be held at GV VivoCity, Yishun, Bishan, Tampines and Jurong Point.

The screenings were announced by GV and film distributor Clover Films on Jun 25 after the film's initial addition of eight Teochew-language screenings sold out. In the same announcement, the cinema operator also said that it will work with grassroots and community organisations to arrange 10 special community screenings of the film.

The film's commercial release in Singapore had originally been approved only in Mandarin, with the Teochew version permitted for limited screenings.

The overwhelming demand was reflected in long queues outside several GV cinemas and heavy traffic on the cinema operator's booking platform on Monday.

On Instagram, user ACG Civilizations shared photos showing queues forming outside GV Tampines from about 2pm that day, an hour before ticket sales began. The user also wrote that the online booking website became congested as tickets quickly sold out, while the queue at the cinema stretched beyond the outlet.

Another user, Zephyh, posted on Threads about waiting in line at GV VivoCity, where dozens of people queued to buy tickets.

"Monday afternoon queue at Golden Village VivoCity – all for one movie in Teochew," the user wrote alongside a video showing the queue extending beyond the cinema. The crowd included people of various ages, with many elderly cinemagoers.

A spokesperson for GV told CNA Lifestyle the cinema operator was "grateful for the overwhelming response".

"Through our observations, while some of the patrons were more senior, there was still a good mix of younger audience," the spokesperson added.

In response to the demand, GV also confirmed that Clover Films submitted a request to the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) on Jun 29 for a further 100 screenings of the film in its original Teochew language.

Directed and co-written by Lan Hongchun, Dear You has become one of China's biggest box-office successes this year.

The film follows two interconnected timelines: A grandson searching for his long-lost grandfather in present-day Thailand, and a newly married man who leaves China for Southeast Asia during the 1940s in search of work.

The release of Dear You in both Mandarin and its original Teochew dialect has sparked broader discussions in Singapore about dialects, Chinese cultural identity and the country's language policies.