ABSTRACT : The creative economy has become a strategic pillar of Indonesia's national development agenda, with the film industry recognized for its dual capacity as cultural soft power and internationally tradable commodity. Yet despite a rapidly expanding domestic market recording 122 million cinema-goers in 2024 Indonesia's film export performance remains marginal relative to the size of its industry and the performance of regional competitors. This study analyzes the comparative advantage and export competitiveness of Indonesian film exports over 2015 - 2024, benchmarking against Japan, South Korea, and Thailand. Secondary time-series data sourced from Trade Map are analyzed using the Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) index and its symmetric transformation, the Revealed Symmetric Comparative Advantage (RSCA) index. Independent sample t-tests statistically verify inter-country differences in export values. RCA values for Indonesia ranged between 0.0007 and 0.0232 across the entire study period wholly below the threshold of 1 indicating no comparative advantage. RSCA values remained consistently negative and approaching -1, confirming the absence of structural export competitiveness throughout the decade. Statistical tests confirmed significant differences (p < 0.001) between Indonesian film exports and those of all three comparator nations: Japan (mean USD 4,738,340 thousand), South Korea (mean USD 909,763 thousand), and Thailand (mean USD 10,226 thousand), against Indonesia's mean of USD 1,540 thousand. These findings reveal a structural disconnect: Indonesia's film industry is domestically powerful but internationally marginal, constrained by underdeveloped international distribution infrastructure, concentrated export markets, and insufficient export-oriented policy. Strategic interventions in distribution diversification, a collective trading house mechanism, and cross-ministerial export coordination are proposed.
Tindaon et al. (Thu,) studied this question.
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