Although the shadow of the pandemic is gradually fading, as of 2024, the film industries in most countries and regions around the world are still on a path of gradual recovery, including the major markets of North America and mainland China, which have yet to return to the peak levels seen in 2019. However, there are a few countries where the film market has gone in the opposite direction, witnessing historically record-breaking trends, and Indonesia in Southeast Asia is one of them.

According to a recent announcement from the Indonesian box office statistics analysis department, as of the end of September, the nationwide number of moviegoers in 2024 has reached 61.25 million, surpassing the previous record of 58.16 million set in 2022. This means that 2024 is destined to become the year with the highest number of moviegoers in Indonesian history.

Poster of "Agak Laen"

Thus far this year, the film most favored by Indonesian audiences is the horror-comedy "Agak Laen," which premiered on February 1 and has since attracted 9.1 million viewers. Following it are the horror-thriller "Vina: Seven Days Before" with 5.8 million viewers and the horror-comedy "Kang Mak" with 5.5 million viewers.

Poster of "Vina: Seven Days Before"

As the fourth most populous country in the world, Indonesia, with a population of 280 million, has previously not made a significant mark on the global film landscape, with domestic box office performance consistently remaining at a low level. However, in recent years, local Indonesian films have begun to gain explosive popularity, especially in the horror and thriller genres, which are rich in local characteristics. This is evident from the fact that the top three box office hits so far this year are all Indonesian horror films. In fact, among the films ranking fourth to tenth in the annual box office for 2024, there are also horror films such as "The Curse of Ghost Village" and "Tortures in the Grave," and the Korean horror film "The Grave Breaker" has also found great success after being introduced in Indonesia, highlighting the high enthusiasm of the Indonesian people for ghost films.

In addition to "The Grave Breaker," three other foreign films have also made it into the top ten box office rankings in Indonesia in the first nine months of this year, namely the Thai film "Grandma's Grandson" and the Hollywood films "Godzilla vs. Kong 2: Rise of Empire" and "Deadpool and Wolverine." However, the latter two films rank lower on the list, which is consistent with the overall trend that Hollywood blockbusters have increasingly found it difficult to gain overwhelming advantages overseas in recent years.

Poster of "The Curse of Ghost Village"

Before Indonesia’s moviegoing numbers set a new record in 2024, the previous record, as mentioned earlier, was 58.16 million in 2022. Of those 58.16 million tickets sold, as many as ten million came from the same film, which is the all-time box office champion in Indonesian history, "The Curse of Ghost Village." Two years later, they followed up with a sequel titled "The Curse of Ghost Village: Origins." The film boldly adopted IMAX cameras for filming and was introduced to North American theaters in April this year by Lionsgate.