Title: Critical determinants of box office success for the Malaysian film industry

Authors: Luqman Alhakim Bin Sheikh Ghazali; Rafikul Islam

Addresses: Graduate School of Management, International Islamic University Malaysia, Jalan Gombak, 53100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia ' Department of Business Administration, Kulliyyah of Economics and Management Sciences, International Islamic University Malaysia, Jalan Gombak, 53100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Abstract: The study seeks to identify the factors that contribute to the box office success of Malaysian films. Data on 316 films were collected from the National Film Development Corporation, Malaysia. Multiple regression and selected non-parametric tests were performed on the data. The findings suggest that the two factors that impact the box office success significantly are the number of days and the number of cinemas a film is screened. Further, closeness of a film's release date to a seasonal Malaysian holiday is considerably consistent at producing a positive correlation. The local film industry generates an average revenue of RM50 to RM80 million (US$1 = RM4.2) a year and employs tens of thousands of people throughout the country. Thus, with limited previous academic literature on the Malaysian film market, such a study to boost the financial resilience of this industry, though exploratory, would prove important for many.

Keywords: business; box office success factors; Malaysian films; local film industry; film genre; film rating.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBSR.2021.115990

International Journal of Business and Systems Research, 2021 Vol.15 No.4, pp.491 - 509

Received: 09 Nov 2019
Accepted: 23 Nov 2019
Published online: 06 Jul 2021 *

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