Indonesia is Southeast Asia’s biggest film market, but a K7 Media study presented by Trang Nguyen at Taiwan Creative Content Fest suggests foreign sellers keep walking through the wrong door. Instead of pitching broad catalogs, Taiwanese producers should start with the genre Indonesian audiences already buy in bulk: horror.
A $352.9 million market with a local-first habit
The scale is hard to ignore. Indonesia’s 2025 box office reached $352.9 million, according to figures drawn from PwC, Box Office Mojo and CJ CGV Vietnam. That is 1.6 times the size of Vietnam’s cinema market and five times Thailand’s. Its 5.1% compound annual growth rate also beats the Asia-Pacific average of 4.3%.
Yet the market leans strongly local. Indonesian titles were 43% of the 2025 release slate — 201 films — but captured 64% of admissions. Local releases sold 82.6 million tickets, more than double the 36.9 million admissions for 100 U.S. releases. Other Asian imports had a thin presence.
- Indonesian titles: 82.6 million admissions from 201 releases.
- U.S. releases: 36.9 million admissions from 100 titles.
- Japanese films: 3.3 million admissions from 27 titles.
- Korean and Chinese films: about 2 million admissions each.
Why horror is the clearest opening
Horror is already the genre Indonesia produces most for cinemas. Five of the ten most-attended Indonesian films since 2011 are horror pictures, and many hits mix scares with comedy or drama. Three local titles — Agak Laen: Menyala Pantiku!, Jumbo and KKN di Desa Penari — have crossed the 10 million admissions mark.
Foreign horror can also travel. The Korean hit Exhuma lifted theatrical interest in Korean films after its 2024 run. The study singles out The Rope Curse 4 as a recent Taiwan-Indonesia collaboration that points the way.
The remake route, and where streaming fits
Remakes are a proven second track. The Indonesian version of Miracle in Cell No. 7 sold around 5.8 million tickets in 2022, while Kang Mak from Pee Mak, a local take on the Thai horror-comedy Pee Mak, drew about 4.9 million in 2024. A cinema version of the Korean series Descendants of the Sun is being produced for 2027, showing that IP can move from series to film.
For finished tapes, streaming is the most open door. Korean shows made up 50% of Netflix Indonesia’s top 50 most-watched titles between January and September 2026, ahead of Indonesian shows at 22% and U.S. titles at 14%. Vidio is Indonesia’s largest streaming platform by cumulative reach, and local microdrama and format deals are expanding rapidly.
Taiwan’s narrow start, and the next move
Taiwan’s current foothold is limited. Meteor Garden remains a cultural touchstone from the 2000s, but that nostalgia does not extend far to newer Taiwanese series. Catchplay+ operates in Indonesia, though it is known mainly for Hollywood films rather than Taiwanese or wider Asian drama.
The study’s practical advice is to lead with horror, use remakes and local IP, target foreign-drama streamers, and raise Taiwan’s profile through promotion rather than straight content sales. It points to JAFF Market, running November 28–30 at the Jogja Expo Center in Yogyakarta, as a starting point for building ties with Indonesia’s film industry.
Source: Variety
