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The Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) 2024 has failed to beat the record-breaking P1.069 billion box office of the annual film festival set in 2023.
Although the MMFF 2024, which started on Christmas Day, was extended another week or from January 7 to until January 14, Tuesday, the additional seven days failed to bring in enough patrons to Philippine cinemas that would have made it a monumental success.
MMFF organizers had hoped that its 50th anniversary edition, with its months-long promotion, would bring in more patronage for Philippine cinema, but MMFF spokesperson Noel Ferrer has projected a box-office take in the neighborhood of over P800 million, the target the organizers had set for itself. The target in 2023 was P700 million.
Assuming an average ticket price of P350, this means around 2.28 million people patronized MMFF 2024, around 720,000 fewer than the MMFF 2023.
Earnings from the MMFF are used for film industry stakeholders, including the Movie Workers Welfare Foundation (Mowelfund), the Film Academy of the Philippines, the Motion Picture Anti-Film Piracy Council, the Optical Media Board, and the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP). A bigger box-office take means more money for the industry and its workers.
Box-office winners
ABS-CBN on Wednesday, January 15, disclosed that its entry, And The Breadwinner Is, Vice Ganda’s first film dramedy, earned P400 million, and various reports from entertainment websites say it topped the MMFF 2024 box office. The movie is still showing in theaters, a sign of its patronage.
APT Entertainment’s The Kingdom initially came in second at the box office as the festival ran, but after GMA Films’ Green Bones, led by Kapuso star Dennis Trillo, won Best Picture and other awards, it overtook the movie starring Vic Sotto and Piolo Pascual and ended up second, entertainment website pep.ph, where MMFF’s Ferrer writes a column, reported on Wednesday.
Quantum Films’ horror film, Espantaho, helmed by Chito Roño and starring Judy Ann Santos-Agoncillo, reportedly came in fourth.
All producers refrained from releasing ticket sales during the festival to avoid a bandwagon effect that would have supposedly favored the more popular films, which is why ABS-CBN only released the box-office take of And The Breadwinner Is only on Wednesday.
Sunset industry
Does this development mean Philippine cinema is dead?
Not really. We all just have to get used to the idea that the cinema business, in general, is a sunset industry, and most people now prefer streaming platforms for entertainment.
The local film industry will have to accept the fact that only a few films will make money at the box office. In 2024, among over 40 mainstream local films, only ABS-CBN’s Rewind (extended showing from MMFF 2023), Viva Films’ Un/Happy For You, and the new Philippine box-office record holder, Hello, Love, Again, the first film co-production of ABS-CBN and GMA Films, did well.
It’s no coincidence that all three are love stories with bankable love teams: Kapuso stars Marian Rivera and Dingdong Dantes for Rewind; Joshua Garcia and Julia Barretto for Un/Happy for You; Kapamilya star Kathryn Bernardo and Kapuso heartthrob Alden Richards for Hello, Love, Again.
All these love teams have an army of loyal fans, all waiting to get the kilig feeling — and other positive chemical reactions — that come with watching love stories.
MMFF’s Ferrer describes Rewind’s record-breaking P900 million in ticket sales “as an exceptional example of a post-pandemic revenge viewing box-office hit.” Meaning, it’s not a sign of a rebirth of Philippine movie-going, just as how it was in the local film industry’s heydays in the ’60s.
Rewind actually had the effect of giving false hopes to the Philippine movie industry. Minus the P900 million ticket sales of Rewind, MMFF 2023 would have earned only P169 million, shared among the nine other entries.
For the MMFF 2024, if you subtract Star Cinema’s P400 million ticket sales for And The Breadwinner Is, this year’s box office of the nine other entries would total around P400 million, or an increase of P231 million in ticket sales from P169 million in 2023.
Quality films
This could be seen as a sign that the Filipino movie-going public is responding to the changes that the local film industry is undertaking in response to a more discerning audience.
Most film analysts say this year’s films in the MMFF are better quality than in pre-pandemic years when escapist movies were the box-office winners.
Both ABS-CBN and APT Entertainment experimented with getting their stars out of their comfort zones, knowing that the Filipino audience now want better quality movies. Vice Ganda did his first full-length dramedy, while Vic Sotto had no comedy lines in The Kingdom.
Producers of Pepe Diokno’s musical took a big risk with Isang Himala for the MMFF 2024, and it reportedly didn’t end up last in the box office.
Producers have definitely learned their lessons and are taking big risks.
As FDCP chief Reyes said in a blog post last December: “This is one Metro Manila Filmfest where commercialism is not a shameless display of reductive or even pandering movies meant to cater to the most superficial level of human intelligence. Instead, some of these movies are well-thought-out, all are well-produced, but most of all, the 10 films want to bring back the audiences to the movie houses where their narratives can be savored properly as a community experience as a celebration of Christmas.”
GMA Films’ Green Bones is a “morality” movie co-written by no less than National Artist Ricky Lee with Anj Atienza. GMA Films also won Best Picture in MMFF 2023 with Firefly. The last time GMA bet big in movie production — and won big — was when it came up with two Best Picture films – historical film Jose Rizal in 1998 and environmental film Muro Ami in 1999, both helmed by the late Marilou Diaz-Abaya.
High ticket prices
Netizens’ comments indicate that it’s really the high ticket prices that are forcing people to limit cinema patronage.
Roly Mendoza Pangilinan’s comment on the MMFF Facebook page encapsulates this sentiment: “Dami bayarin, nagtataasan pa, uunahin pa ba magsine?” (So many bills to pay, prices are going up, would you prioritize watching a movie in cinema?)
“Sana all may extrang money pampanood ng pelikula,” added Zadly Mac Cab. (I hope all have extra money to watch movies.)
The average ticket price of P350 has made watching movies in theaters too prohibitive, given that cinema-going is essentially a group activity. A family of five would have to spend P1,750 to watch a movie, an amount even those in the upper-middle class consider too prohibitive.
As FDCP chair Reyes, citing an industry study, said in a Senate hearing last September: “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…Philippine cinema patronage is a middle-class activity. Nawala na po yung masa (The masses no longer watch).”
Reyes also said the waiting time from when a film is shown in cinemas to the time it’s made available on streaming platforms has gone down from six months to just 45 days.
So, movie-goers are just using their common sense and being rational. They now prefer to use hard-earned money to subscribe instead to streaming platforms where they can watch unli and on-demand.
As Ferrer said in his piece: “This year, there were just too many good choices even on Netflix. Totoong iba ang sitwasyon ngayon (It’s now really a different situation).”
Superior service
Cinema, as we know it, will eventually wither away and could even disappear in the long run as more people turn to streaming services.
Streaming platforms are simply offering a superior service — they’re way cheaper and subscribers can watch any time they want. Netflix’s subsription plans, for instance, range from P149 to P549 per month, and consumers can watch either on their mobile phones, tablets, laptops, or smart TVs.
As a Kantar Media study in 2024 puts it, streaming platforms are “winning the hearts and minds” of the audience.
In its study on Most Valuable Philippine Brands presented last September by consulting firm Kantar Brandz, Eva Claravall, Philippines and Asia-Pacific head for customer experience, said streaming or account-based entertainment services, also called over-the-top (OTT) media, offer viewers the “flexibility to choose which shows to watch based on previous views, when to watch, where to watch, and without disruptions from a media library.”
She also said “the future demands for more on-demand content.”
So, the question that should be asked is not whether Philippine cinema is dead; it’s how to create quality films for a global audience, just like how the South Koreans are doing it. – Rappler.com
