If only Pee Mak had an iPhone

New movie “Pee Mak Phra Khanong” is gliding along with help from the ethereal magic of the social media. Spreading the word on Twitter are director Banjong Pisanthanakun (@banjong_p) and stars Mario Maurer (@ohohmario) and Davika “Mai” Hoorne (@DavikaH), and of course GTH, the film studio, has its own news-and-promotions account. 

Banjong gleefully announced that ticket sales surpassed Bt100 million within four days of the movie’s release, earning Bt106.3 million, which places it second only to “The Legend of Suriyothai” in that time spread. 

Idle tweet-boast? Not according to many fans’ photos posted online of long queues at cinemas across the country. Many devotees sent Banjong snaps of “hours-long” lines at the box offices in Rangsit, Ayutthaya, Hat Yai and Chon Buri. “I’d like to thanks all the fans who bother to line up for three to five hours to view ‘Pee Mak’,” Banjong tweeted back. “Everyone on our team is so glad that we’re almost in tears.”

Give credit to the stars too, he added. “The reason ‘Pee Mak’ has received an overwhelmed response in terms of its romantic aspect is thanks to the acting of Mario and Mai. Their eyes alone act well. They are great!” 

Banjong isn’t ready yet to concur with the consensus that the film will gross Bt200 million, but if it does, he said, “I think it will prove that Thai movies can earn that much, which will help the industry.”

Meanwhile the cast and crew celebrate, with Mario teasingly sending Line messages to Mai full of purchased stickers – she uses Line but hasn’t bothered buying any of the expressive emoticons. Maybe she will now, especially if she has a cut in the movie’s rakings. 

And politics gets dragged in too. Nation Multimedia Group director Sermsin Samalapa tweeted that, if “Pee Mak” kept earning Bt4 million a day and stayed on screens for 548 years, its gross would easily top the Bt2 trillion that the government needs to borrow to pay for its infrastructure mega-projects. The government is obviously in the wrong business.