CICAK-MAN makes Malaysian cinema history
This lizard's sure good at climbing ... the box-office charts, that is. Cicak-Man ("cicak" is "lizard" in Malay), Malaysia's first big-screen superhero, broke the opening-day record in the country by grossing RM350,000 on its first day of release on Dec 7. And just three days later, its gate receipt rose to RM1.15 million.
The action-comedy is also set for release in Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia. The Cicak-Man promo tour is currently taking place, while KRU FIlms, which produced the film, has announced a 13-episode TV series as well as a monthly comicbook series.
In fact, there is already a cellphone game!
Cicak-Man is set in the fictional city of Metrofulus, where a scientist inherits superpowers after an accident involving a house lizard. It is directed by Yusry Abd Halim, one-third of sibling pop group KRU. The film has a few things going for it, namely star-power in the likes of the extremely popular (though not very good) comedian Saiful Apek, the novelty of it being "Malaysia's first superhero" and the first film to have extensive use of CGI and effects. It also has across-the-board appeal that has helped it draw audiences from all races (usually a difficult thing to do for Malay-language films in Malaysia).
The producers said a sequel had already been planned even before Cicak-Man was released. According to KRU FIlms CEO Norman Abd Halim, in an interview with Malay newspaper Berita Harian, Casino Royale, with 80 prints, only managed to gross RM600,000 while Cicak-Man, with only 40 prints, did half as good on only its first day.
