Thailand Ong-Bak returned 18.3× its production cost, earning $20.1M against a $1.1M budget — one of the highest-return Thailand films in our catalog.
Synopsis
องค์บาก
“No computer graphics. No stunt doubles. No wires.”
When the head of a statue sacred to a village is stolen, a young martial artist goes to the big city and finds himself taking on the underworld to retrieve it.
Audience Engagement
1,548 audience reviews — more than 100% of Thailand films in our index.
Popularity sits at the 98th percentile among Thailand films.
Budget & Box Office Efficiency
At a 1h 45m runtime, production spent $10K per minute on screen and earned $192K per minute back.
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with Ong-Bak. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
Other Titles From Baa-Ram-Ewe
Action + Thriller in Thailand
19 Thailand titles in our catalog blend the Action and Thriller genres. Below: the top-rated of them (excluding Ong-Bak itself).
The 2002–2004 Thailand Window
Ong-Bak holds position #4 of 17 Thailand films in the 2002–2004 window, below highlighted by audience rating.
The 2000s Thailand Landscape
Catalog density by release year across the 2000s in Thailand, 76 titles in total. Highlighted year (yellow) is when Ong-Bak premiered alongside 5 others.
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 5 other Thailand films in 2003.
The 18th Thailand title from Thailand we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1974).
Our Thailand catalog contains 239 titles in total (190 films).
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on Ong-Bak, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- fate · 5
- gay interest · 3
- sculpture · 1
- fighter · 25
- muay thai · 8
- martial arts · 369
- thailand · 56
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #59 of 239 Thailand films indexed here (75th percentile by TMDB audience score).
Rating is +0.8 points above the Thailand average of 6.3/10.
Among Thailand Action productions specifically: #7 of 58 (top 12%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | Thailand |
|---|---|
| Original Language | Thai |
| Spoken Languages | English, Thai |
| Production Companies | Baa-Ram-Ewe, Sahamongkolfilm, EuropaCorp, Golden Network Asia |
| Runtime | 1h 45m |
| Release Date | January 21, 2003 |
| IMDb | tt0368909 |