The Citrus Log

A Generation of Asian Films and the Sister I Left in Huế

Reel Citrus — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 18:56:01 GMT

It is summer 1995. The kitchen phone is ringing, and my mother answers. The long cord stretches around the counter while she returns to the stove, where breakfast is cooking. It's a weekend, and my brother is outside with neighborhood kids. I am nine years old, and we have been living in Houston for a few years.

I don’t remember any specific calls, just…

Count the People, Not the Revenue

Reel Citrus — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 18:41:59 GMT

It's Easter Sunday in Los Angeles, and I haven't written here since Sundance. Two months of things happening faster than I could sit down and document, which is kind of the whole challenge with running a distribution company and also trying to keep a public journal about it. But here we are. Coffee's hot, the birds are chirping, and my mind is still buz…

We Haven’t Even Gotten to the Screening Yet

Reel Citrus — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 15:10:01 GMT

First official week back from Sundance and right into the swing of things! My team and I are partnering with the Czech Republic to host a screening of Summer School, 2001, in New York and Washington, D.C. We have about five weeks to plan for the first two of five cities as part of our community screening before our theatrical release this summer. Five w…

We’re releasing a Czech–Viet film

Reel Citrus — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 21:01:02 GMT

A new week and a new year have begun, and last night, the Golden Globes. My favorite part is seeing the foreign film category year after year. Language around international work has become much more familiar and, might I add, comfortable? While we don’t do this work to earn nominations and awards, my curiosity about distribution takes shape in these mom…

VHS Stores and Hong Kong Television That Raised Me

Reel Citrus — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 20:02:47 GMT

Before I ever thought of Hong Kong and Taiwan as a film industry, it was television. Long-form, serialized TV shows that aired over weeks or months and became part of our daily lives.

In the early 1990s, Houston was home to one of the largest concentrations of Vietnamese immigrants in the United States. After the war and throughout the decade, families s…

How Films Are Chosen in Under Two Seconds, and Why Your Film's Key Art Matters More Than You Think

Reel Citrus — Sun, 04 Jan 2026 16:30:24 GMT

If you look closely at how people choose what to watch on any streaming platform, something consistent emerges. Very few viewers start with a trailer (I hate it when a trailer automatically starts before I even ask), and even fewer pause to read a synopsis. The first decision is visual and happens quickly.

Key art.
(I love this stuff!)

Learning Inside an Old System

Reel Citrus — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 14:30:28 GMT

I’m still processing the fact that 300 people stumbled onto my first post about what we learned releasing films in North America.

To be honest, I’m still learning this industry myself, so seeing that many people lean in to listen was a shock.

Why I’m Bullish on the Cinema in 2026

Contrary to the “theaters are dead” narrative, 2025 has been a year of massive, renewed enthusiasm. People are going back with a specific kind of hunger for events. Looking at this through the lens of a cultural marketer, here are some interesting data points:

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The Gen Z Surge: Gen Z is effectively leading the charge with a 25% spike in attendance this year. They’re turning out for high-stakes, immersive events (think Demon Slayer marathons or the massive scale of A Minecraft Movie). Both make so much sense, I love both titles!
A Theatrical Comeback: A staggering 77% of Americans saw at least one film in theaters this year. Loyalty sign-ups are peaking because the theater has become a meaningful third space. It’s that perfect liminal moment, the transition where you leave your daily life at the door and step into someone else’s story for two hours. My husband is a proud Alamo Drafthouse season passholder.
The Global Shift: In Vietnam alone, domestic films raked in over $112 million this year, a record-shattering leap from 2024. ($68 million) The world is realizing that local stories are actually global powerhouses.
- Note: Citrus helped to release 3 of the top 10 films of 2025!

Why I’m Doing This

Despite all those numbers, I still look at the industry through a very personal lens.

Without going too far back into a boring biographical narrative, especially from someone who doesn’t feel like they have a solid footing yet, I’ll start where things actually began to make sense.

With my mom.

What We Learned From Releasing Three Top Vietnamese Films in North America

Reel Citrus — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 19:35:09 GMT

I’m Brittany Tran. I run Reel Citrus Media, a North America release partner for international and diaspora films.

People like to say diaspora films are “too niche” for theatrical. Or that audiences won’t show up unless there’s a massive marketing spend behind them.

That didn’t match what we saw on the ground.

Here’s what actually happened.

The Audience Was Already There

The biggest myth we ran into was that Vietnamese audiences in North America needed to be “found.”

They didn’t.

They already:

Followed Vietnamese-language media
Tracked directors and actors by name
Shared trailers in family group chats
Knew exactly which theaters they were willing to drive to

Our job wasn’t to invent demand or convince people to care. It was to recognize that the audience was already there and activate that demand with clarity, respect, and the right invitation.

Before We Begin

In April 2025, I launched Citrus and in the next six months, we released three Top Vietnamese films into North American theaters. Across opening weekends, each title moved tens of thousands of tickets, with combined attendance landing in the 30,000–50,000+ range per release window, driven primarily by diaspora audiences.

Let’s begin.

What Actually Moved Tickets

1. Director-forward storytelling beat everything else

In diaspora communities, directors are part of a shared cultural ownership. People recognize their names, follow their work over time, and see their success as tied to the community itself.

We leaned into that relationship, treating filmmakers as representatives of a shared storytelling lineage the community already cared about and wanted to support.

Instead of leading with trailers alone, we extended our outreach directly to the directors and asked them to speak to the audience, through short greeting videos and personal messages. Before doing so, we reminded viewers who these directors were: their previous films, their background, and the body of work that made them worth listening to in the first place.

Context matters.