Hong Kong The Way of the Dragon returned 207.7× its production cost, earning $27.0M against a $130K budget — one of the highest-return Hong Kong films in our catalog.
Synopsis
猛龍過江
“The Colosseum . . the battleground of Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris.”
Tang Lung arrives in Rome to help his cousins in the restaurant business. They are being pressured to sell their property to the syndicate, who will stop at nothing to get what they want. When Tang arrives he poses a new threat to the syndicate, and they are unable to defeat him. The syndicate boss hires the best Japanese and European martial artists to fight Tang, but he easily finishes them off.
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #45 of 836 Hong Kong films indexed here (95th percentile by TMDB audience score).
Rating is +1.1 points above the Hong Kong average of 6.3/10.
Among Hong Kong Action productions specifically: #21 of 516 (top 4%).
Audience Engagement
1,031 audience reviews — more than 97% of Hong Kong films in our index.
Popularity sits at the 96th percentile among Hong Kong films.
Budget & Box Office Efficiency
At a 1h 40m runtime, production spent $1K per minute on screen and earned $270K per minute back.
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with The Way of the Dragon. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
Other Titles From Orange Sky Golden Harvest
Action + Crime in Hong Kong
119 Hong Kong titles in our catalog blend the Action and Crime genres. Below: the top-rated of them (excluding The Way of the Dragon itself).
The 1971–1973 Hong Kong Window
Among 28 Hong Kong films we catalog from this window, The Way of the Dragon places #3 — near the top of its class.
The 1970s Hong Kong Landscape
Catalog density by release year across the 1970s in Hong Kong, 122 titles in total. Highlighted year (yellow) is when The Way of the Dragon premiered alongside 9 others.
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 9 other Hong Kong films in 1972.
The 30th Hong Kong title from Hong Kong we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1955).
Our Hong Kong catalog contains 836 titles in total (828 films).
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on The Way of the Dragon, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- nunchaku · 4
- rome · 2
- colosseum · 1
- property · 1
- action hero · 25
- restaurant · 17
- fistfight · 14
- honor · 10
- east asian lead · 10
- combat · 9
- fish out of water · 8
- hoodlum · 8
- italy · 7
- culture clash · 7
- italy · 7
- crime boss · 7
- chinese mafia · 7
- martial arts · 369
- kung fu · 121
- gangster · 85
- hong kong · 73
- fight · 60
Production Details
| Primary Country | Hong Kong |
|---|---|
| Original Language | Cantonese |
| Spoken Languages | Cantonese, Mandarin, English, Italian |
| Production Companies | Orange Sky Golden Harvest, Concord Productions |
| Runtime | 1h 40m |
| Release Date | June 1, 1972 |
| IMDb | tt0068935 |
Questions Answered
Was The Way of the Dragon profitable?
Yes — The Way of the Dragon earned $27.0M against a production budget of $130K, a return of 207.7× its cost.
How highly rated is The Way of the Dragon?
Among Hong Kong Asian filmss in this catalog, The Way of the Dragon ranks #45 of 836 — in the top 5%.