Taiwan Should Bet on Horror to Crack Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s Biggest Film Market, Study Finds

Horror stands out as a natural meeting ground for Taiwanese and Indonesian producers, according to a K7 Media study of the Indonesian film and TV market presented by Trang Nguyen at Taiwan Creative Content Fest (TCCF) in Taipei.

The stakes are considerable. Indonesia is Southeast Asia’s largest economy and its biggest film market, with box office revenue of $352.9 million in 2025, according to figures drawn from PwC, Box Office Mojo and CJ CGV Vietnam. That is 1.6 times the size of Vietnam’s box office and five times Thailand’s. The market’s 5.1% compound annual growth rate also beats the Asia-Pacific average of 4.3%.

Local films rule the multiplexes. Indonesian titles made up 201, or 43%, of 2025 releases but took 64% of admissions, with 82.6 million tickets sold, per Cinepoint data via the Asian Contents & Film Market (ACFM). That is more than double the 36.9 million admissions for the 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 club: Imajinari’s 2025 comedy “Agak Laen: Menyala Pantiku!,” Visinema’s 2025 animated fantasy adventure “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 recent hits have mixed scares with comedy or drama. Many of the country’s horror films draw on existing IP. Foreign horror can break out too. Korean hit “Exhuma” drove up 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 went on to generate a new sequel plus an animated offshoot. “Kang Mak from Pee Mak,” a local take on Thai horror-comedy “Pee Mak,” drew around 4.9 million in 2024. Adaptations need not be film-to-film: a local big-screen version of “Descendants of the Sun,” the 2016 Korean series, is in production for cinemas in 2027.

On television, five commercial groups lead. MNC Group runs RCTI, MNCTV and GTV alongside streamers RCTI+ and Vision+ and microdrama app V+Short. Emtek/SCM operates SCTV, Indosiar and Mentari TV plus streamer Vidio. Trans Media (Trans TV, Trans7), Viva (ANTV, tvOne) and MD Entertainment (MDTV) round out the field.

Sinetron, the local soap format, remains the backbone of Indonesian TV series. The serials are churned out in bulk, usually screen every day or several nights a week, and often stretch to hundreds of episodes. Recent examples include RCTI’s “Terikat Janji,” which bowed in April 2026, and Indosiar’s “Merangkai Kisah Indah,” which launched in July 2025. Religious and faith-themed drama also features, with examples including RCTI’s “Amanah Wali” and SCTV’s “Istiqomah Cinta.” Streamers, by contrast, are packaging romance in shorter runs for younger viewers, leaning on existing digital IP and making crime, revenge and action a signature of premium programming.

Vidio, which launched in 2014, is Indonesia’s largest streaming platform by cumulative reach as of 2026. It released its first local original in 2019, grew fast during the pandemic and has teamed with Wattpad to turn web novels into series. Netflix arrived in 2016 but was blocked by state-owned telecom Telkom until 2020. It has since become the leading international streamer in the country, with “The Cigarette Girl” in 2023 as its first Indonesian original. Disney+ launched in 2020 as Disney+ Hotstar, rebranded in October 2025 and signed a deal with Vidio in October 2026 for a joint package. Viu entered in 2016, while Chinese-owned platforms WeTV and iQiyi have moved aggressively into the market with Chinese-language drama libraries and growing local slates.

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 Indonesia’s trending chart on Sept. 22, 2026, with Korean titles “Ok! Let’s Get Divorced” and “Reborn Rookie” behind it. Korean series “My Dearest Nemesis” became Vidio’s best-performing Korean drama after the platform bought exclusive first-run rights in 2025.

Among linear broadcasters, MDTV and ANTV both have an appetite for imports. MDTV runs a daily Korean drama double bill and “Marisol,” while ANTV programs Indian series including “Jaane Anjaane” and “Naagin 7.”

Microdrama is crossing over into the mainstream. RCTI brought microdramas to broadcast television in January 2026, slotting them in daily at 3:30 p.m. MNC Digital Entertainment launched V+Short in June 2026, pairing international titles with homegrown productions from across Southeast Asia. In September 2026, Vidio partnered with ReelShort to add more than 200 of its titles dubbed into Bahasa Indonesia.

In unscripted, local programs include popular Indosiar singing show “Dangdut Academy,” MNCTV game show “Uang Kaget Lagi” and Trans7 comedy variety show “Lapor Pak!” Imported formats remain few and mostly come from established Western franchises. Game shows and quizzes accounted for half of the unscripted formats brought into Indonesia between 2023 and 2026, followed by talent (25%), dating (13%), cooking (6%) and comedy (6%). Scripted remakes are still rare, though Vidio’s original series version of CJ ENM’s “Bad Guys” points to fresh interest.

In children’s content, animation that teaches, stays family-friendly and centers on likable characters does best, and linear channels stick with proven IP. Streaming has overtaken TV for kids’ viewing, with YouTube Kids a popular destination, and government regulation puts a premium on trusted, age-appropriate programming.

Taiwan’s own foothold is narrow. “Meteor Garden” remains a cultural touchstone from the 2000s, but beyond it there is little nostalgic goodwill for Taiwanese content to draw on, and many viewers can’t tell a Taiwanese series from a mainland Chinese or Hong Kong one. Taiwanese streamer Catchplay+ operates in Indonesia, but its reputation rests on Hollywood movies, not Taiwanese or wider Asian drama.

Beyond horror, the K7 Media study flagged foreign-drama specialist channels and streamers as targets for finished dramas, alongside IP adaptations into films and scripted series, Bahasa-language educational kids’ content delivered digitally and the film sector more broadly. It also urged Taiwanese companies to look past straight content sales and raise their profile through more promotional activity. The presentation pointed to JAFF Market, which will run Nov. 28–30 at the Jogja Expo Center in Yogyakarta, as a place to start building ties with the local film industry.