Content, marketing, scheduling, characters, narrative, and cultural visual background as contributing factors to box office animation films in Malaysia : the moviegoers perspectives / Muhammad Husairi Kamisan

The Upin & Ipin animation series, which first aired in 2007, is one of the animation film that received a positive response in Malaysia. This success was further enhanced by the release of an animation film titled Upin & Ipin: Keris Siamang Tunggal, which raised over RM 26 million in a groundbreaking collection in 2019. Previous literatures has stated that content, marketing, scheduling, characters, narrative and cultural visual background contributed to box-office animation films. This study intends to explore whether content, marketing, scheduling, characters, narrative and cultural visual background are the factors that has contributed to box office animation films among moviegoers in Malaysia. This study was done using a qualitative analysis with 10 Informants whom are animation films moviegoers in Malaysia. The results of interviews with 10 informants who are local animation film enthusiasts found that content with interesting concepts and ideas, marketing efforts through various mediums, scheduling of showtimes, positive animation characters, an effective and understandable narrative and the visual background of Malaysian culture are important factors contributing to box office animation films in Malaysia. Several other factors have also been found contributing to box office animation films in Malaysia, which are the theme songs and music, trailer, production companies’s brands, animation script, government support, and animation series. Based on these results, this study suggests that all these factors should be taken into account before an animation film is produced in Malaysia. This also marks the good response of the local audience to the Malaysian animation arena.