The reign of Frozen II has come to a close in Indonesia as Visinema Pictures' Jumbo takes the throne of the highest-grossing animated film released in the country. With a record 4.97 million admissions, just edging beyond Frozen II's 4.63 million.
Jumbo's success could cause some ripple effects within the country's budding animation scene. Despite being so populated, interestingly enough, Indonesia's animation world is rather closed off, with not a single homegrown animated flick breaching 700K admissions. Well, until Jumbo, of course, which surprised basically everyone, as the film is in its 19th day in theaters as of the report.
Of note, the country is the fourth largest in the world, only being dwarfed by China, India, and the United State. So, naturally an animated film coming from the country proving to be not just successful but also beating out a Disney film -- much less Frozen II -- in profitability is a pretty big deal.
Importantly, this film isn't just making strides in the animation world, but overall film scene, with it standing at ninth place among the top local films released in the country in terms of all-time admissions. For some more clarity, Jumbo has garnered around $11.8 million. Meanwhile, the highest-grossing local flick, that being horror film, KKN di Desa Penari, secured $27.4 million.
Jumbo was written and directed by Indonesian animator and comedian Ryan Adriandhy, who rose to fame after winning the first season of Stand Up Comedy Indonesia in 2011. This film acts as Adriandhy's long-form directorial debut, having only been the director, as well as animator, of 2020's Prognosis, a highly-praised 10-minute short, even leading to it being given the Best Short Animated Film at Indonesian Film Festival back in 2020. Meanwhile, Visinema Pictures has a pretty solid track record of award-winning films under its belt, though, none seem anything like Jumbo.
Frankly, the fact any film could even manage to best Disney is a miracle, much less it turning out to be a local flick. That said, it's still nowhere near the highest-grossing film in general, with Marvel sitting comfortably with Avengers: Endgame grossing $34.7 million.
Official synpsis reads: “Don, a boy who gets bullied and nicknamed ‘Jumbo’ by his peers because of his chubby physique wants to get even with the bully, but a spirit named Meri suddenly appears and asks for Don’s help to reunite her with her family’s spirits being in trouble."