Cinema audience for Indonesian movies surging to highest number in 6 years: 21 Cineplex

If you plan to watch ‘Rudy Habibie’ this weekend instead of (or in addition to, you movie nerd) ‘Star Trek Beyond’ or ‘Ghostbusters’, then you’re contributing to the recent rise of Indonesian cinema’s popularity.

There’s really no better way to measure such popularity than to count the number of cinema audience for local movies. And this year, the number is fantastic – at least according to box office data from 21 Cineplex, the company that operates 80% of cinemas nationwide.

Thanks to mega hits like ‘Ada Apa Dengan Cinta? 2’ (AADC 2)’, 21 Cineplex has already recorded an audience of 16 million people who watched local movies across their cinemas this year.

The cinema chain believes this year’s audience could surpass the 25 million-mark set in 2010. However, it would take several more hit movies for this year to surpass the 30 million-mark set in 2009, which was a great year for Indonesian cinema thanks to classics like ‘Laskar Pelangi’ and ‘Ayat-ayat Cinta’.

“There was a weak period [for Indonesian movies after 2010]. Back then there were ‘Petualangan Sherina’ and ‘AADC’. Last year there was ‘Pendekar Tongkat Emas’ but it failed to break through. This year ‘AADC 2’ succeeded in returning the excitement,” said movie producer Mira Lesmana, as quoted by CNN Indonesia.

‘AADC 2’ is this year’s most popular Indonesian movie at 21 Cineplex thus far, drawing in 3.7 million viewers during its theatrical run earlier this year. It’s followed by ‘My Stupid Boss’ with 3 million viewers and ‘Comic 8: Casino Kings Part 2’ with 1.8 million viewers. Seven Indonesian movies have already passed the 1 million viewers mark this year.

This trend is also reflected in the increase in market share for local movies. Last year, Indonesian movies accounted for 20% of 21 Cineplex’s audience across 1,111 screens. This year, the share is up to 30% of the chain’s audience across 1,188 screens.

That said, foreign (particularly Hollywood) movies still reign in 21 Cineplex’s cinemas, drawing in 53.5 million viewers already this year.