‘96 Minutes’ becomes Taiwan’s biggest local film of 2025, ‘Mudborn’ ranks third

A trio of films have reset Taiwan’s box office with Hung Tzu-Hsuan’s 96 Minutes topping the local film chart in 2025 to date, while Shieh Meng-Ju’s local horror Mudborn now ranks third and Japanese anime Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle continues to smash records.

96 Minutes, billed as Taiwan’s first high-speed rail disaster thriller, knocked out gangster film Gatao: Big Brothers last Thursday (October 23) to take the local box office crown for this year to date. Its cumulative box office reached $6.41m (NT$197.21m) as of Wednesday (October 29).

By this weekend, it is expected to become the first local film to reach the $6.5m (NT$200m) milestone since Gatao: Like Father, Like Son, which was last year’s local box office champion. Gatao is a popular gangster franchise, which has spawned five instalments, the latest being this year’s Gatao: Big Brothers.

Mudborn is a supernatural horror starring Taiwan’s Yo Yang and Hong Kong’s Cecilia Choi as a married couple expecting their first child. But their domestic bliss is broken by a clay baby doll that harbours an evil spirit.

Since opening on October 9, it has taken $2.56m (NT$78.6m), beating Lovesick ($2.03m/NT$62.5m) to become the third highest grossing local film of the year to date.

Tomorrow Together Capital, the media fund launched by Hank Tseng, is among the backers of this ghost film, which is produced by Gift Pictures’ Chen Liang-Tsai. It marks the directorial feature debut of Shieh, a seasoned editor whose recent editing credits include Golden Horse award-winner The Soul, Dead Talents Society, and Netflix seriess Copycat Killer and The Victims’ Game.

The box office for local films proved lacklustre in the first quarter of this year due to the absence of local lunar new year releases. Hsu Fu-Hsiang’s campus romance drama Lovesick was the first local film to cross $302,000 (NT$10m) this year after it opened in April.

96 Minutes ranks sixth in this year’s overall box office, which is topped by Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle, the latest instalment in the hugely popular Japanese anime franchise. With a cume of $26.9m (NT$826.19m) as of Wednesday, it has become Taiwan’s fourth biggest film ever and the biggest Japanese film of all time.

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