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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Rebecca Ratcliffe South-east Asia correspondent

Golden age for south-east Asian cinema as local films break box office records

A scene from the hit Thai film How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies
A scene from hit Thai film How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies. Photograph: handout

On social media videos, audiences throw packs of tissues around the cinema halls. Tearful TikToks from across Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore show friends leaving the cinema weeping. Thailand’s latest hit film, How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies, has reduced audiences across south-east Asia to tears – and broken box office records.

The film, about a university dropout who offers to care for his terminally ill grandma, hoping to inherit her house, has reportedly earned 334m Thai baht ($9.1m) at the Thai box office and become the most successful Thai film ever in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.

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