Chart Chat: International box office hits squeeze local entries out of Top 10

First up, two big Deepavali releases make a splash, namely Tamil films Vedalam and Thoongaa Vanam at #2 and #4 respectively.

Vedalam, starring Ajith Kumar, has received positive reviews and have also proved to be a certified box office hit in its home country.

Thoongaa Vanam meanwhile is an adaptation of the 2011 French thriller Sleepless Nights and stars Kamal Haasan who was last seen on screens in Papanasam.

There has been a lot of mentions online that Vedalam is officially the widest Tamil release of all time in Malaysia, playing on 105 screens. Once we verify this, we’ll be sure to announce it!

Hong Kong film Return of the Cuckoo, meanwhile, takes up the #3 spot while Taiwan’s Oscar submission Our Times sits pretty at #5 after a month in cinemas. Rounding out the rest of the Top 10 are Thailand’s Ghost Ship (#6), Hindi movie Prem Ratan Dhan Payo (#8) and Japan’s Boruto: Naruto The Movie (#9).

Due to the tough competition, local films struggled to make an impression.

Mandarin film Find My Dad is the biggest local debut this week, debuting at #13 with 34 prints, suggesting a decent per-theatre average. Sandosh Kesavan‘s Biasan – second film from the former student of Hassan Abd Muthalib — is also a new entrant, utilising its 32 prints to reach #16.

Given that most local films this year have debuted on somewhere around 50 to 70 screens, is it fair to consider that both Find My Dad and Biasan had semi-wide releases? What do you think?

Further down the chart we see Juvana 2 fall 11 spots down to #18, while Polis Evo hangs on #27 with just 4 prints left in circulation.

This week’s official #1? You guessed it: Spectre stays on the top spot, and according to Box Office Mojo, has already grossed RM19,064,200 in its two weeks of release in Malaysia alone.