TOP 30 INDONESIAN MOVIES ALL-TIME BOX OFFICE

Updated May, 2022

Unlike in the United States (US), which is the largest film industry globally, it is not easy for us to calculate how much gross income of a film. The US has been doing this for decades, and the more sophisticated digital data-based information technology such as the internet, the easier and faster the data obtained. It took a long time and a long process to calculate box-office achievement figures, as we can see today. The latest box-office data, both domestically (US) and internationally (global), can be monitored daily through websites such as boxoffice.com or boxofficemojo.com.

Then how about the “box-office” calculation in Indonesia? At least, since the new millennium era, the estimate has been reasonably good, although it may not be 100% accurate. Unlike in western countries that use the calculation of how many total achievements (in US dollars) while in Indonesia is based on the number of spectators, the data is taken from various local cinema networks. Then how much does the total rupiah count? As a rough calculation, the gross income of a film is the number of viewers multiplied by Rp. 40,000 (USD 2.73/for the average ticket price in 2019 – filmindonesia.or.id). The year is getting back; of course, the average ticket price is getting smaller. The best-selling films in Indonesia in the past two decades can be seen in the table below.

Sumber: filmindonesia.or.id

You can see the results of our review by clicking on each movie title above. We don’t need to talk about quality first. At least we can see the tastes of Indonesian viewers from the films above, which are still dominated by teenage, comedy, religious, and now horror films. Each period also has a different trend. Horror genre, for example, even though this genre has been widespread and selling for a long time, Indonesian horror films are still challenging to reach millions of viewers. Not since Danur (2017), horror films have momentum and are very successful now, whether the film is good or not. The successful action film, such as The Raid, was doing better overseas, but not on the top 30 list. 

To discuss quality is certainly not enough, just a brief discussion, and requires a separate analysis. For now, you can see for yourself what exactly is the trend from year to year, and can reflect on Indonesian cinema, whether Indonesian films are already able to compete with other countries? The quality of a movie certainly is one thing that is important to make Indonesian movies competitive. Indonesian films were capable of doing better. Is Indonesian film have a good quality now? If not, when?

If you want to know more about how the latest Indonesian film developments through the best-selling films, you can get more in-depth reviews in Book 30 of the Best-Selling Indonesian Films of 2002 – 2018. (click to see more details about the contents of the book). You can get this book order there.