Papa Zola The Movie has reached $15m (RM61m) to become the biggest animation of all time in Malaysia, beating blockbuster titles Zootopia 2, Ne Zha 2 and local feature Ejen Ali The Movie 2.
The Malay-language family adventure has also risen to become the third highest grossing Malaysian film ever, behind Mat Kilau and Blood Brothers. The film is produced by Monsta Studios in collaboration with producer Astro Shaw.
The story centres on Papa Zola, a hard-working father with a small happy family. After a chance encounter with an old friend from a secret organisation, his young daughter is kidnapped by aliens, prompting Papa Zola and his wife to take swift action to rescue their child and protect the world from invasion.
This original story sees Papa Zola take centre stage as the central character for the first time, following his previous appearances on the big screen as a side character in 2016’s BoBoiBoy The Movie and 2019’s BoBoiBoy Movie 2.
When the teaser trailer was launched in May, it recorded more than two million views across digital platforms in under 24 hours, indicating its huge potential.
The film led the box office on its first weekend (December 11-14), pushing Disney’s Zootopia 2 to second place, and continued to stay top for five further weekends, keeping new releases Avatar: Fire And Ash, Anaconda and Back To The Past as well as holdover Zootopia 2 at bay. As of January 19, the film crossed $15m (RM61m) at the Malaysian box office, making it the biggest animated film of all time in the country.
Director Nizam Abd Razak is a founder and CEO of Monsta Studios, formerly known as Animonsta. The Malaysian studio is also behind BoBoiBoy and Mechamato, both are popular film and series franchise.
Astro Shaw, which also handles local marketing and distribution, previously co-produced BoBoiBoy Movie 2 and Mechamato Movie alongside Monsta Studios.
Papa Zola The Movie opened on December 11 in Malaysia and Brunei and within the same week in Singapore. It will next premiere in Indonesia on January 23, followed by India, Vietnam and key Middle Eastern markets, including Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Turkey from April onwards.
Last year, local animated films performed strongly at the Malaysian box office. Closely behind Papa Zola The Movie was Ejen Ali The Movie 2, which opened on May 22 and subsequently earned $14.4m (RM58.5m). It is produced by WAU Animation and Primeworks Studios.
A further standout success from last year was Skop Productions’ action thriller Blood Brothers, directed by Syafiq Yusof and Abhilash Chandra, which became the second highest grossing local film of all time with takings of $18.2m (RM73.6m).
Studio Kembara’s 2022 period action film Mat Kilau, directed by Syamsul Yusof, remains the biggest local film ever with $22.1m (RM89.4m).
*Box office data provided by Astro Shaw
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