Thailand’s screen economy evolves

In the first half of 2024, Thailand’s inbound foreign film production revenue reached a new high, surpassing the entire earnings recorded for the whole of 2023. High-profile Hollywood titles—from Season 3 of HBO’s “The White Lotus” and FX’s “Alien: Earth” to Universal’s “Jurassic World Rebirth” and Disney’s “Send Help”—descended on the Southeast Asian nation.

Yet, beneath the glitz of record-breaking inbound revenue lies a quiet structural pivot.

At the recent Thailand Success Stories 2026 event hosted alongside the Motion Picture Association (MPA) in Bangkok, key stakeholders—from studio executives and independent producers to policymakers—made it clear that Thailand no longer wants to be just a beautiful backdrop. The real economic prize is building a self-sustaining ecosystem that transforms local service labour into high-value Intellectual Property (IP) ownership.

Inward boom vs. Local stagnation

Thailand’s screen economy currently presents a striking dichotomy. On the foreign production front, the country is punching well above its weight.

“Thailand has already evolved from just a beautiful backdrop and scenery to becoming a production hub in Southeast Asia,” noted Nicholas Simon, Managing Director of IndoChina Productions, highlighting Thailand's combination of cost efficiency, infrastructure and skilled crew base.

However, the local theatrical market tells a tougher story. Domestic box office returns have slowed dramatically, leaving local studios struggling to finance mid-to-high-budget films.

“In Thailand, if you want to make a film with a budget of more than 35 million baht (approximately US$1 million), it’s hard to get it made right now,” explained actor-filmmaker Arak Amornsupasiri. “We may have to go back to making lower-budget films because investors aren’t sure if they can recover their money”. The writer and director of “The Stone” added that he had been looking for an investor for his new film for a few months.

This local capital squeeze has forced the industry to pivot away from service-only work toward developing scalable, exportable IP and international co-productions.

From service provider to IP owner

For decades, Thai production companies relied heavily on servicing foreign studios. Now, established players and emerging creators are building long-term business models based on owning their content.

Local giant KANTANA, for instance, is leaning into decades of institutional knowledge while modernising. “KANTANA has been producing our own IP since radio drama 75 years ago,” said the company’s CFO Kantana Kanjaruek. “Now we are focused on content that can stay timeless.”

Similarly, studio GDH has cracked the code on making local cultural nuances travel internationally without diluting their essence. GDH’s strategy relies on universal emotional hooks in their local details.

“We never try to be less Thai in order to go international,” stated Yanisa Harnkarnsujarit, Business Director at GDH. “The big ideas of movies are universal—like the relationship between a grandmother and her grandson in ‘Laan Mah’ (‘How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies’). But the food, the rituals, and showing love without saying it—that is uniquely Thai. That’s what makes it memorable.”

Policy and labour: Professionalising the pipeline

To bridge the gap between service work and IP creation, both industry leaders and the government are pushing for institutional reform.

1. Domestic incentives to de-risk capital

While Thailand's foreign filming incentive scheme has successfully attracted foreign capital, policymakers are now fine-tuning a domestic rebate scheme. The proposed policy will offer a 15 per cent cash rebate for local productions spending over 15 million baht, with an additional 5 per cent bonus if the content achieves streaming distribution in at least four countries (with one outside ASEAN). To qualify, the IP must remain majority Thai-owned—a move explicitly designed to help local studios hedge production risk.

2. Labour standards & writers’ rooms

International platforms like Netflix and Prime Video have involuntarily raised the bar for local labour standards. Mandates such as 12-hour maximum workdays and 10-hour turnaround periods between shifts are slowly replacing the notoriously gruelling hours of traditional Asian film shoots.

Simultaneously, screenwriting is undergoing a professional revolution. The recent launch of the Thai Writers Association marks a milestone in protecting creators’ copyrights and legal rights. Studio structures are shifting away from the traditional model—where a single director writes alone—towards Hollywood-style “writers’ rooms”. Few Thai film studios have writer teams. For example, GDH’s “Gohan” is written by five members of the studio team.

3. Technology not a replacement

In the post-production and VFX sectors, technology is driving massive efficiency gains. KANTANA has adopted AI tools to speed up background creation for LED volumes and streamline post-production workflows. However, executives emphasise that AI is purely operational.

“Technology is keeping up, but it’s not the final answer," KANTANA's Kantana emphasised. “The strength is the combination of technology, flexibility and experienced people who make sure the final work meets expectations.”

Connecting the dots for the next generation

Thailand’s film industry stands at a critical juncture. Inward production has proved that local crews possess world-class technical capabilities—as evidenced by Prime Video’s “The Devil’s Mouth”, which employed a 95% Thai local crew for set construction and art direction.

The challenge now is transferring that industrial maturity into the domestic creative sector. Emerging showrunner Nottapon Boonprakob (“Mad Unicorn”, “The Evil Lawyer”) says that while global streaming platforms are eager for content and young talent is eager to create, the ecosystem still lacks structured mentorship and investment bridges.

“There is still a gap,” Nottapon noted during the panel discussion. “We have a lot of emerging filmmakers and a lot of investors who want to invest. The challenge now is learning how to connect the dots between the two.”

If Thailand can successfully connect those dots—pairing government rebates with robust IP protection, modern labour standards and a new generation of storytellers—it will no longer just be the foreign production playground of Asia, but one of its powerhouse creative originators.