The Coffin filling up with cash

Ekachai Uekrongtham's horror film, The Coffin (โลงต่อตาย, Lhong Tor Tai), earned 15 million baht in its first four days since opening in Thai cinemas on August 21, according to an item in today's Daily Xpress. It's the No. 1 film in Thailand.

“It could end up close to 40 million baht, recouping our investment,” producer Pantham Thongsang is quoted as saying by Daily Xpress.

Major Cineplex, Thailand's biggest movie chain, lists The Coffin as its top movie, outpacing the newly released Hollywood actioner, Death Race. The top 5 at Major is rounded out by Wall-E, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor and another Thai film, the Phranakorn martial-arts drama, Hanuman: The White Monkey Warrior, which opened on August 12.

The Coffin is a co-production between Thailand, Singapore and Hong Kong interests and features a pan-Asian cast led by Hong Kong's Karen Mok and Ananda Everingham from Thailand. The original soundtrack is in English, but for Thai cinemas, it has been cleanly dubbed and English subtitles are added. I'd still like to catch the English version, just to hear Ananda's Aussie accent.

Plans to create an “international version” have been dropped, says Pantham, a producer at Thailand's TIFA Company Ltd. The same cut will instead be seen throughout Asia, and presumably, worldwide.

TIFA also says a song from The Coffin soundtrack, "Yeur" ("Won't Let You Go"), is jumping up the charts on music label GMM Grammy's social networking site, G Member.

Rights to The Coffin have already been sold to Hong Kong and South Korea, and it was supposed to open in South Korea in July, though I can't find any reference that it ever did. It was shopped at Cannes by Arclight Films' Easternlight label.

Also, Twitch unearthed an English-language trailer, and I find it better than the Thai trailer, which gives too much away.

See also:

• One foot in the grave (Bangkok Post review) (cache)

Related posts:

• Review: The Coffin (Lhong Tor Tai)
• More posters for The Coffin
• Coffin selected for competition in Goa
• The Coffin gets Thai poster and August 21 release date
  
• The Coffin to open in South Korea
  
Fresh stills from The Coffin
• The Coffin being carried to Cannes
• The Coffin is delivered to Kong Kong, China

(Via Daily Xpress, Shock Till You Drop, Twitch; hat tips to Movie Cafe and 24 Frames per Second)