KUALA LUMPUR, May 24 — Malaysian audiences are fully locked into Colony.
The latest infection horror spectacle from Yeon Sang-ho — the filmmaker behind Train to Busan and Hellbound — has now grossed RM3.3 million locally, according to Golden Screen Cinemas, extending a breakout Malaysian run that began with RM1.4 million shortly after release.
Malaysia also became the first South-east Asian country to officially screen the film, with an advance premiere held at GSC One Utama on Thursday before the movie opened nationwide on Friday.
The strong local response mirrors the film’s explosive momentum in South Korea, where Colony has already crossed one million admissions just four days after release — making it the fastest film of 2026 to hit the milestone.
According to the Korean Film Council, the film pulled in 1,089,996 viewers as of yesterday morning, surpassing the pace of this year’s current Korean box-office heavyweight, The King’s Warden, which eventually drew around 16.85 million viewers.
The film also recorded 199,768 admissions on its opening day in South Korea alone, according to Yonhap News Agency.
Starring Jun Ji-hyun, Koo Kyo-hwan, Ji Chang-wook, Shin Hyun-been, Kim Shin-rok and Go Soo, Colony follows survivors trapped inside a sealed skyscraper after a mysterious infection outbreak spirals out of control.
Cut off from the outside world, the survivors are forced into a brutal fight against infected humans who continuously mutate into increasingly dangerous forms — giving Yeon’s signature social-horror formula a more chaotic, body-horror edge.
The project had already generated heavy international buzz after premiering in the Midnight Screenings section at the Cannes Film Festival on May 15 before landing distribution deals across more than 120 territories.
But beyond the scares and large-scale action, Yeon has also framed the film as a reflection of modern anxieties tied to AI, collective consciousness and the erosion of individuality in the digital era.
