MANILA, Philippines — Local movie opening days may soon be moved from Wednesday to Friday, Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) chairperson Liza Diño said Thursday.
Diño, in a Facebook post, said this was the result of FDCP’s dialogue with producers, distributors and theater owners regarding the exhibition of films all over the country.
“Since the goal is to achieve concrete results, one of the achievements is the agreement to switch the opening day of cinemas from Wednesday to FRIDAY,” Diño wrote.
“We still have to wait until the rest is finalized for this to take effect, but at least we are moving forward,” she added.
Aside from changing the opening day, Diño said FDCP’s dialogue also discussed issues of “admission prices, guaranteed days in every booked film and a holdback period for films released in cinemas before it goes to other platforms like VOD
etc.”
“But more than reaching an agreement to the proposed solutions, my main takeaway from yesterday’s dialogue is the willingness of both parties (finally) to sit, talk, LISTEN and accept each other’s sentiments calmly and in good faith,” Diño said.
Diño expressed relief that after so many years, concerns have been finally raised in the proper venue.
“For so many years, nagkaron ng divisiveness dahil kung saan-saang platform na nailalabas ang mga hinaing causing for parties to be villified without any recourse to verify these concerns in proper venues and to the people concerned mismo para mapakinggan ang pinanggagalingan ng bawat isa. But yesterday was a good gauge to see the next hundred years of Philippine cinema,” she said.
“At the end of the day, we have but one common goal: to support, nurture and uplift our LOCAL FILM INDUSTRY,” she added.
Filmmaker Erik Matti, who was present at the dialogue, commented on Diño’s post and said: “Finally naguusap usap na. This is just going to get better. Thank you everyone!”
Diño replied, “Agree direk. Tuloy-tuloy na ‘to. As long as our heart is in the right place and the common goal to support our local film industry prevails.”
Matti earlier expressed concern about the film industry after local film releases were met with low box office sales.
This stirred about discussion among fans and pundits about debuting movies on Friday where most movie buffs troop to theaters.
Some noted there is weak audience under the traditional Wednesday opening day, causing movies to be pulled out of cinemas before the weekend. /muf
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