Chelot passes RM16 million after four weeks at No. 1, and is still on at 99 Malaysian cinemas

Four weeks after it opened, Chelot is still the most-watched film in Malaysia. Malay Mail's weekly chart, published on 18 September, has Adrian Teh's thriller at No. 1 for the week of 11 to 13 September with its takings at RM16 million, ahead of Hope, All Wishes Come True! and Once Upon a Time in the Middle East. This site's listings for the week to 25 September still have it at 99 cinemas with 1,405 sessions, at every chain but TSR, with 473 of those sessions on Saturday alone.

How the number grew

The milestones came a week apart. Malay Mail reported on 6 September that the film had reached RM10.6 million by 8pm the night before, ten days after its release on 27 August, and had held the No. 1 spot for eleven days straight, past Spider-Man: Brand New Day; the paper noted that extra halls had been added to meet demand. Berita Harian reported on 10 September that the total had reached RM14 million after fourteen days, counting the preview screenings, and quoted the production's statement thanking audiences for support that had not let up. Malay Mail's chart of 11 September had it holding the top spot at RM14 million against the Chinese animated hit All Wishes Come True!, and a week later the same chart put it at RM16 million.

That places it in the year's RM10 million club, which Malay Mail lists as Tarung: Unforgiven with RM20.6 million, Polong with RM15 million, Libang Libu with RM14.1 million, Malaikat Malam with RM12.2 million and Ah Beng vs Liang Po Po with RM10 million. At RM16 million, Chelot has passed all but Tarung.

The film behind the figure

Malay Mail's account of the story: Inspector Haqqim, a special operations police officer played by Shukri Yahaya, is crushed by debt and family pressure, and after a raid goes wrong he secretly becomes an informant for a weapons-smuggling ring led by Datuk Bakri, played by Shaheizy Sam, and his right-hand man Azraf, played by Beto Kusyairy. The paper credits the film's pull to two things it reported before release: a single-take action sequence of 1.9 kilometres from Quill City Mall to Pertama Complex, five minutes and 19 seconds without a cut and recognised by the Malaysia Book of Records, and Teh's insistence on practical effects, 95 per cent of them by his own account, from explosions to bullet hits. The producers are ACT 2 Pictures, Golden Screen Cinemas, Astro Shaw, SunStrong Entertainment and Marvellous Culture & Film.

Week four, by the listings

A local film in its fourth week is usually being squeezed by the new releases, and this week's are big ones: Terbang opened on Thursday at 116 cinemas and Resident Evil at 109. Chelot has given up its premium halls to them, with only a handful of Beanieplex, Indulge and Premiere sessions left, but it has kept its cinemas: 99 across all 14 states, with Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Johor carrying the most sessions and 38 sessions starting after midnight. The Saturday count of 473 says the chains still expect a full weekend. Malay Mail's chart ranks by takings over a weekend; this site's counts are sessions for the week ahead, which is why Resident Evil and Terbang lead here before they appear on the chart at all.

The film is rated 16 and runs 125 minutes. The Chelot page lists every cinema still carrying it, the Terbang page has the local film that opened this week, and the showtimes page puts every cinema's Chelot times side by side. Thursday is when the chains reallocate halls, and a fifth week at 99 cinemas is not guaranteed.