MANILA, Philippines – After the box-office success of Rewind in the Metro Manila Film Festival 2023, many thought Filipinos would soon be watching Philippine movies again in cinemas. But that has turned out to be wrong.
The heads of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) and the Film Development Council (FDCP) told a Senate hearing on the budgets of these two agencies on Tuesday, September 3, that only ABS-CBN Films’ and Viva Films’ Un/Happy For You, a love story starring Joshua Garcia and Julia Barreto, has done well in the box office so far this year out of more than 40 local mainstream movies produced and shown this year.
ABS-CBN disclosed on Tuesday that the big-screen comeback of the #JoshLia tandem earned P390 million in ticket sales as of September 2 or after three weeks in theaters in the Philippines and abroad. It earned P20 million on opening day on August 14, the biggest for any Philippine movie this year. It shot up to P200 million in two weeks as it was shown in over 300 cinemas nationwide.
Although that’s good news to Un/Happy For You‘s film’s producers, it’s bad news to the rest of the movie producers who’ve come up with films this year.
How many local films have been shown in big and small theaters this year? A good indicator is the number of films reviewed by the MTRCB and distributed locally.
MTRCB chair Lala Sotto said that from January 1 to August 25, they had reviewed 114 local films, 44 of which were mainstream and 70 were indie. They also reviewed 138 foreign films.
When asked by Senator Jinggoy Estrada which of the 44 mainstream movies did well this year after Rewind and other films’ success in the 2023 Metro Manila Film Festival, Sotto replied: “Un/Happy For You did very, very well…The indie films didn’t make much.”
“Some [mainstream films] broke even but a greater number lost money,” said FDCP chair and film director Jose Javier Reyes. “Yung Rewind is a grand slam. In the same manner that Un/Happy For You is really a grand slam. But can you imagine Sen[ator], from January, the next big hit is August! All the months in between, flop lahat (all flop).”
‘No more masa’
Reyes said watching in theaters is now a middle-class activity in the Philippines, which has lost the mass cinema market.
He cited the high ticket prices which now cost between P350 to P400, which the Filipino masses can no longer afford.
“We have lost completely the D and E markets who used to watch Philippine movies. We only have now the B and C1 markets watching movies,” Reyes said, sharing the results of an FDCP survey of movie viewing behavior post-pandemic.
“Philippine cinema patronage is a middle-class activity. Nawala na po yung masa (The masses no longer watch).”
He recalled that when the country’s largest mall developer, SM Prime, celebrated its 65th year in October 2023 and held a single-day P65 promo ticket price for movies, there was chaos.
“Nagkagulo, dahil sa kasabikan ng tao na manood ng sine (There was chaos because people were eager to watch movies),” Reyes said.
He said the change in cinema-going behavior was already clear in the Metro Manila Film Festival in 2022 when the Mikhail Red-thriller Deleter, starring Nadine Lustre, was the box-office hit instead of the Vice Ganda-led Partners in Crime of ABS-CBN Films. He said Deleter appealed to the young GenZ market that can afford to watch movies.
Reyes said he has had meetings with cinema owners on lowering ticket prices and they’ve explained they are unable to lower the prices due to high cost of power — cinemas being large and air-conditioned — and maintenance costs.
He gave credit to cinema owners for bringing the prices down at times. For instance, in the last Philippine Independence Day celebration, he said ticket prices of local movies were brought down to P270, while Hollywood films were in the average of P350 to P400. The two Philippine movies which were priced lower at that time — Fruit Cake and Playtime — likewise bombed. Ironically, the comedy film Fruit Cake, also starred Joshua Garcia.
Playtime is a crime drama produced by Viva Films and GMA Pictures.
“Nangunguhulugan na sometimes hindi yung presyo ng ticket kundi yung content (Which means that sometimes, it’s not the ticket price that matters but the content). That’s why the challenge is for producers to really come up with better works,” Reyes said.
He also cited the box-office success of the Thai movie, How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies, which was shown exclusively in SM Cinema and also priced at P270, which he attributed to its good story.
The Thai film takes up universal themes like aging and love and caring for grandparents. It has a sad and happy ending.
Reyes said the masses can only afford to pay P250 for a movie ticket “at most,” given that the daily minimum wage in Metro Manila is now only P645
The irony is the only way the local movie industry can recover is if the masses go back to watching movies in theaters.
“Kailangan talaga ang masa ang manood dahil ang dami e. Eh nawala na,” Reyes said. (The masses have to watch because they’re so many. But that’s gone.)
In addition, he said the “repeat business” — wherein moviegoers watch a movie they like more than once — is gone because they just wait for the film to stream in platforms like Netflix.
“Before, if you like the movie, you watch it twice. Now, you watch it and you wait for it to stream,”
Reyes said the window from when movies are shown in theaters and later on streaming platforms is now down to 45 days, which Estrada said was from around six months before.
“Kasi ang window nila from movies to Netflix is 45 days, ‘di na 6 months, nag negotiate na sila. kaya hinihintay na lang yung second business,” he said.
(The window from movies to Netflix is 45 days, no longer 6 months, they negotiated. So they just wait for the second business.)
Netflix subscription in the Philippines ranges from P149 to P549 a month, which is on demand and available even on smartphones. – Rappler.com
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