Taiwan Should Bet on Horror to Crack Indonesia's Film Market, Study Finds

By Grace Kim

Horror is the genre Taiwan should lead with to break into Indonesia, Southeast Asia's biggest film market, according to a K7 Media study presented by Trang Nguyen at Taiwan Creative Content Fest (TCCF) in Taipei. Indonesia's box office hit $352.9 million in 2025, based on figures from PwC, Box Office Mojo and CJ CGV Vietnam — 1.6 times the size of Vietnam's and five times Thailand's. Its 5.1% compound annual growth rate also beats the Asia-Pacific average of 4.3%.

Why horror?

Indonesian titles took 64% of admissions in 2025 — 82.6 million tickets from 201 local releases, or 43% of the total — per Cinepoint data via the Asian Contents & Film Market. That's more than double the 36.9 million admissions drawn by 100 U.S. releases. Other Asian imports barely registered: 27 Japanese films drew 3.3 million admissions, while 61 Korean and 16 Chinese titles each pulled in 2 million.

Three local titles sit in the 10-million-plus admissions club: Imajinari's 2025 comedy "Agak Laen: Menyala Pantiku!," Visinema's 2025 animated fantasy "Jumbo" and MD Pictures' 2022 horror "KKN di Desa Penari." Horror is the genre Indonesia produces most for cinemas; five of the 10 most-attended Indonesian films since 2011 are horror pictures, and many draw on existing IP (pre-existing intellectual property such as novels or folklore). Foreign horror can break out too — Korea's "Exhuma" lifted local theatrical interest in Korean films after its 2024 run. The presentation singled out "The Rope Curse 4" as a recent Taiwan-Indonesia collaboration.

Remakes form a second route. The Indonesian version of Korean film "Miracle in Cell No. 7" sold around 5.8 million tickets in 2022 and generated a sequel plus an animated offshoot. "Kang Mak from Pee Mak," a local take on the Thai horror-comedy, drew around 4.9 million in 2024. A big-screen version of the 2016 Korean series "Descendants of the Sun" is in production for cinemas in 2027.

What does TV look like?

Five commercial groups dominate: MNC Group (RCTI, MNCTV, GTV, streamers RCTI+ and Vision+, microdrama app V+Short), Emtek/SCM (SCTV, Indosiar, Mentari TV, Vidio), Trans Media, Viva and MD Entertainment. Sinetron (Indonesian daily soap operas) remains the backbone, often running hundreds of episodes — recent examples include RCTI's "Terikat Janji," which bowed in April 2026, and Indosiar's "Merangkai Kisah Indah," launched in July 2025. Streamers counter with shorter romance runs for younger viewers, plus crime, revenge and action as premium signatures.

Vidio, launched in 2014, is Indonesia's largest streaming platform by cumulative reach as of 2026; it has teamed with Wattpad to turn web novels into series. Netflix arrived in 2016, was blocked by state-owned Telkom until 2020, and is now the leading international streamer — "The Cigarette Girl" (2023) was its first Indonesian original. Disney+ Hotstar rebranded in October 2025 and signed a joint package with Vidio in October 2026. Viu, WeTV and iQiyi are also active.

For sellers of 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 (22%), U.S. (14%) and Chinese (6%) fare. Thai series "To Love and Cherish" topped Viu's trending chart on Sept. 22, 2026. Vidio's "My Dearest Nemesis" became its best-performing Korean drama after exclusive first-run rights were bought in 2025.

Microdrama (short-form vertical video series) is crossing into the mainstream: RCTI began broadcasting microdramas daily at 3:30 p.m. in January 2026, MNC launched V+Short in June 2026, and in September 2026 Vidio added more than 200 ReelShort titles dubbed into Bahasa Indonesia. In unscripted, game shows and quizzes accounted for half of imported formats between 2023 and 2026; scripted remakes remain rare, though Vidio's version of CJ ENM's "Bad Guys" signals fresh interest.

What does this change for Taiwan?

Taiwan's foothold is narrow, the study finds. "Meteor Garden" remains a 2000s touchstone, but many Indonesian viewers can't distinguish Taiwanese series from mainland Chinese or Hong Kong ones, and Catchplay+'s local reputation rests on Hollywood movies. Beyond horror, K7 flagged foreign-drama channels, IP adaptations, Bahasa-language kids' content and film-sector deals as targets — plus more promotional activity rather than straight sales. The recommended starting point: JAFF Market, running Nov. 28–30 at the Jogja Expo Center in Yogyakarta.