Malaysia's box office revenues grew by 21.5% to hit $64.87m(RM243.63m) in 2005, making it the biggest year ever in the territory's boxoffice history.

Last year was also thefourth year in a row that Malaysia enjoyed double-digit growth. An average of 20.5% perannum growth was recorded over the three years from 2002-2004.

The surge in 2005 was mainlydue to the box office of foreign films which stood at $58m (RM218.14m) from 248titles, up 24.7% from the 242 titles of the year before.

King Kongruled the box office chart with $2.25m (RM8.46m), beating Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire with $2.06m (RM7.74m) and The Chronicles Of Narnia with $1.94m(RM7.29m)

King Kong achieveda record-breaking opening weekend, grossing $0.25m on its opening day alone. Afterthe New Year, in its fourth week of release, it went on to become the highestgrossing film ever in Malaysia, surpassing the $3.14m record held by Spider-man 2.

Malaysia's nascent local film industry generated $6.78m(RM25.49m), representing 10.5% of the total box office. Top earners wereShuhaimi Baba's Pontianak HarumSundal Malam 2, Badaruddin Azmi's Gangster and KL Menjerit 1 and Aziz M Osman's Senario XX, which all crossed the RM2m mark.

The massive box officeexpansion can be attributed to the multiplex boom which began two years ago.This year, around 40 new screens are expected, bringing the total to around 300nationwide. Both TGV and Cathay have a 10-screen multiplex each due to open withinthe next few months.

Malaysia: Top 10films in 2005 (as of Dec 25, 2005)

1. King Kong (UIP) $2.25m*
2. Harry Potter And The Goblet OfFire (WB) $2.06m
3. Chronicles Of Narnia (BVI)$1.94m*
4. War Of The Worlds (UIP) $1.71m
5. Star Wars: Episode 3 (Fox)$1.71m
6. Chandramukhi (5 Star) $1.46m
7. Kung Fu Hustle (from 2004) (Col) $1.45m
8. Constantine (WB) $1.33m
9. Fantastic Four (Fox) $1.23m
10. Madagascar (UIP) $1.23m

* Still on release

Malaysia: Top 10local films in 2005

1. Pontianak HarumSundal Malam (RM2.93m) $0.78m
2. Gangster (RM2.79m) $0.74m
3. Senario XX (RM2.33m) $0.62m
4. KL Menjerit 1 (RM2.17m) $0.57m
5. Anak Mami Kembali (RM1.96m) $0.52m
6. Lady Boss (RM1.8m) $0.47m
7. Sembilu 2005 (RM1.43m) $0.38m
8. Gk3 The Movie (RM1.41m) $0.37m
9. Gila-Gila Pengantin Popular (RM1.37m)$0.36m
10. Pontianak Menjerit (RM0.95m) $0.25m