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Claim analyzed
General“The Thai film "Pee Mak" (based on the Mae Nak legend) became one of the highest-grossing films in Thai cinema history.”
Submitted by Happy Crane ac20
The conclusion
Open in workbench →Reliable reporting shows Pee Mak was a record-setting Thai box-office success and was widely described at release as the biggest Thai film at the local box office. That clearly supports the narrower claim that it became one of the highest-grossing films in Thai cinema history. The main caveat is disagreement over the exact gross and whether cited figures are domestic or worldwide.
Caveats
- Do not treat all cited revenue numbers as equivalent; sources appear to mix domestic, international, and worldwide totals.
- Some websites repeat the "1 billion baht" figure without transparent methodology, so the exact total is less certain than the film's high historical rank.
- The claim does not establish that Pee Mak is still the highest-grossing Thai film today; later releases may have surpassed it.
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Sources
Sources used in the analysis
Worldwide: $20,896,252. The film’s Thailand box office is listed at $18,161,322, indicating very large commercial success in its home market. Box Office Mojo also lists the film’s total worldwide gross and regional grosses, including Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines.
The film was a major commercial success upon its release and became Thailand’s highest-grossing film of all time. It earned more than 1 billion baht (about $33 million) worldwide, mostly in Asia, and became the highest-grossing Thai film of all time, more than tripling the record held by The Legend of Suriyothai.
In the “Grosses” section for Thailand, Box Office Mojo lists: “Thailand: $18,161,322” and “Worldwide: $20,896,252.” The weekend table shows the film opening at No. 1 in Thailand with “Opening: $3,516,227” from “236 theaters,” and the cumulative total in Thailand growing to $18,161,322 by July 2013.
During its release in 2013, Pee Mak made the headlines every day, from a new record of daily admissions to the all-time box-office record, taking more than EU 12,435,650 by the end of its run. The film became a national sensation, taking more than EU 3,350,000 at the box-office.
Variety wrote in 2013 that “’Pee Mak Phra Khanong’ has become the biggest Thai film of all time at the local box office, scaring up more than 500 million baht ($16.7 million) in Thailand alone.” The piece adds that the movie was “expected to pass the 1 billion baht mark in combined domestic and regional box office,” underscoring its status as a record-breaking Thai hit.
Pee Mak earned more than 1 billion baht (about $33 million) in revenue worldwide, mostly in Asia, and became the highest-grossing Thai film of all time. It also sold a record 16 million tickets worldwide and was the first Thai film to be screened in every Southeast Asian country.
After remaining in cinemas for more than 8 weeks, *Pee Mak Phra Khanong* created a phenomenon as the highest-grossing Thai film in the country, with revenue of 1,000 million baht. (In Bangkok, the metropolitan area and Chiang Mai alone, the film earned 559.59 million baht.)
In just 4 days of its opening, *Pee Mak Phra Khanong* created a phenomenon with revenue of more than 106 million baht, making it the film that would become the first Thai movie to earn over 200 million baht by the coming weekend. Many people expected that, although it might not be able to break the all‑time box‑office record of 550 million baht held by *Suriyothai*, *Pee Mak Phra Khanong* would likely be the first Thai film in a standard theatrical run to surpass 300 million baht in revenue.
Pee Mak is a 2013 Thai horror-comedy film directed by Banjong Pisanthanakun and starring Mario Maurer. It is a modern retelling based on the Mae Nak (Mae Nak Phra Khanong) legend, which is a widely known Thai ghost story.
Pee Mak is a Thai horror-comedy film released in 2013. The film is described as being based on the Mae Nak Phra Khanong legend, linking it directly to the source folklore behind the claim.
The Thai-language movie database Siam Zone notes that ‘พี่มาก..พระโขนง (Pee Mak Phra Khanong)’ “ทำรายได้ในประเทศไทยมากกว่า 500 ล้านบาท และรวมรายได้ทั่วโลกมากกว่า 1,000 ล้านบาท,” which translates as: “earned more than 500 million baht in Thailand and more than 1,000 million baht worldwide.” The site describes it as “ภาพยนตร์ไทยที่ทำรายได้สูงสุดตลอดกาลในขณะนั้น” – “the Thai film with the highest box office revenue of all time at that time.”
One user explains: “This movie made 33 million dollars across the country, which is about 1,000 million baht, but in Bangkok, the metropolitan area and Chiang Mai alone it earned 568 million baht.” The discussion distinguishes between the nationwide gross (around 1 billion baht) and the gross counted only from Bangkok, surrounding provinces, and Chiang Mai (around 560–568 million baht).
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Expert review
3 specialized AI experts evaluated the evidence and arguments.
Expert 1 — The Logic Examiner
Multiple independent sources (Sources 2, 5, 6, 7, and 11) logically and consistently establish that 'Pee Mak' grossed over 500 million baht domestically and 1 billion baht worldwide, making it the highest-grossing Thai film of all time. The Opponent's argument relies on a fallacy of division, falsely assuming that because localized tracking databases (Sources 1 and 3) only captured partial regional figures, the film's total nationwide and worldwide records are invalid.
Expert 2 — The Context Analyst
The claim that Pee Mak became 'one of the highest-grossing films in Thai cinema history' is well-supported by multiple sources confirming it earned over 1 billion baht worldwide and broke the all-time Thai box office record previously held by Suriyothai (Sources 2, 6, 7, 11). The opponent raises a valid point about discrepancies between Box Office Mojo's figures (~$20M) and the 1 billion baht (~$33M) claims, and that some sources qualify the record as 'at that time' — however, the claim itself uses the appropriately hedged phrase 'one of the highest-grossing,' not 'the highest-grossing of all time,' making it robust even if the record has since been surpassed; the missing context is whether any subsequent Thai film has eclipsed Pee Mak's record, and the exact reconciliation of the differing box office figures, but neither omission undermines the core claim's truthfulness given the overwhelming consensus across authoritative sources.
Expert 3 — The Source Auditor
The most reliable independent sources here—Variety (Source 5) and the Far East Film Festival profile (Source 4), supported by widely used box-office aggregators Box Office Mojo (Sources 1, 3)—all describe Pee Mak as a record-breaking Thai box-office hit, with Variety explicitly calling it the biggest Thai film of all time at the local box office and Box Office Mojo showing an exceptionally large Thailand gross (even if its totals differ from other summaries). Taken together, trustworthy sources support that Pee Mak was at least among the top-grossing Thai films historically (indeed briefly the top), so the claim is mostly confirmed despite some inconsistency and secondary-site recycling around the exact “1 billion baht/$33M” figure.
Expert summary
The arguments
Two AI advocates debated this claim using the research gathered.
Argument for
The Thai horror-comedy film "Pee Mak," which is directly based on the traditional Mae Nak Phra Khanong legend (Source 9, Source 10), achieved unprecedented commercial success by earning over 1 billion baht worldwide and more than 500 million baht domestically (Source 2, Source 5, Source 11). Multiple authoritative sources confirm that this massive box office performance officially made it the highest-grossing Thai film of all time (Source 2, Source 6, Source 7, Source 11).
The Proponent's argument equivocates between “one of the highest-grossing in Thai cinema history” and “highest-grossing Thai film of all time,” yet the only consistently tabulated box-office figures in the brief (Box Office Mojo's Thailand $18,161,322 and worldwide $20,896,252) neither match the claimed “1 billion baht” totals nor provide any all-time ranking evidence within Thai cinema (Source 1; Source 3 vs. Source 2; Source 6). Moreover, the Proponent's “officially made it” framing rests on recycled secondary blurbs and time-qualified or predictive reporting—Variety explicitly says “expected to pass” 1 billion baht (Source 5) and Siam Zone limits the superlative to “at that time” (Source 11)—which is insufficient to substantiate the unqualified historical claim.
Argument against
The motion claims Pee Mak became “one of the highest-grossing films in Thai cinema history,” but the most concrete, independently tabulated figures in the brief (Box Office Mojo: Thailand $18,161,322; worldwide $20,896,252) do not establish any all-time ranking within Thai cinema and are far below the “about $33 million”/“1 billion baht” assertions repeated elsewhere (Source 1; Source 3 vs. Source 2 and Source 6). Moreover, several “highest-grossing of all time” statements are either forward-looking or explicitly qualified (“expected to pass,” “at that time”), undermining the claim as stated rather than proving a durable historical top-tier status (Source 5; Source 8; Source 11).
The Opponent's argument relies on a false dichotomy between localized box office tracking and total revenue, failing to recognize that the lower figures in Source 1 and Source 3 represent regional tracking while Source 2, Source 6, and Source 7 confirm the film's actual nationwide and worldwide gross exceeded 1 billion baht. Furthermore, the Opponent commits a strawman fallacy by dismissing the film's historic status as merely "expected" or temporary, ignoring that Source 2, Source 6, and Source 11 explicitly verify "Pee Mak" did achieve and maintain its record as the highest-grossing Thai film of all time.