Indonesian box office for Motion Picture Association (MPA) member films soared to new heights in 2006, increasing 29.5% to $33.8m (Rp307.55bn) from 67 releases.

The strong results were mainly driven by two record-breaking titles: Superman Returns took $2.68m (Rp24.43bn) and Casino Royale collected $2.37m (Rp21.56bn), to become the highest and second highest-grossing films of all time in Indonesia respectively.

'2006 was a year of great products - a lot of broad appeal family action-adventure films such as Pirates Of The Caribbean 2 and Superman Returns worked really well in the market,' said Brett Hogg, Buena Vista Columbia TriStar general manager for Singapore and Indonesia.

'Added to these were the many great action tent-poles which created a winning product range for this action-adventure orientated market.'

Thanks mainly to Casino Royale, The Da Vinci Code and Pirates Of The Caribbean 2 , Sony Pictures was the market leader amongst the MPA distributors with a 19.8% market share.

An increase in new cinema openings in Jakarta and other key cities also contributed to the dramatic growth, Hogg added. Last year, Indonesia 's biggest exhibitor the 21 Group opened 11 new cinemas with 50 screens nationwide while new player Blitz Megaplex opened its first multiplex - a nine-screen in Bandung.

According to 21 Group, a total of 10.48 million admissions were clocked up from 32 Indonesian films, including two big hits. Hanny Saputra's Heart and Rizal Mantovani's Kuntilanak each surpassed the one million admissions mark.

In comparison, Superman Returns scored over 1.1 million admissions. Exact box office figures for Indonesian films are not available.

Indonesia Top Ten MPA films 2006

1. Superman Returns (WB) $2.68m (Rp24.43bn)

2. Casino Royale (Sony) $2.37m (Rp21.56bn)

3. Mission : Impossible 3 (UIP) $2.26m (Rp20.58bn)

4. The Da Vinci Code (Sony) $1.59m (Rp14.44bn)

5. Pirates Of The Caribbean 2 (BVI) $1.54m (Rp14.02bn)

6. X-Men 3 (Fox) $1.36m (Rp12.42bn)

7. The Fast And The Furious 3 (UIP) $970,000 (Rp8.83bn)

8. Eragon (Fox) $880,300 (Rp8.01bn)

9. Poseidon (WB) $822,800 (Rp7.49bn)

10. Fearless (BVI) $ 790,600 (Rp7.19bn)

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