Unitel’s risk-taking pays off at the box office

TONY Gloria: “If you have a good story, people will see your movie. photo: Raffy Lerma

Unitel head honcho Tony Gloria clearly doesn’t shy away from risk.  Believing that you don’t need to follow tired old formulas in movie making to turn in a profit, Gloria brings to mind his Hollywood counterpart Harvey Weinstein, the media mogul who produced a series of award-winning musicals and was responsible for such diverse cinematic successes as “Sex, Lies, and Videotape,” “The Crying Game,” and “Pulp Fiction,” among many others.

A musical based on the songs of the Apo Hiking Society isn’t the usual formula for box-office success followed by other top studios, which regularly churn out glossy romantic comedies or horror flicks.

But Gloria, who is Unitel’s chair and CEO felt passionately enough to produce “I Do Biddo Biddo,” written and directed by Chris Martinez (whose film “Ang Babae sa Septic Tank” was recently nominated for best screenplay at the Asian Film Awards).

Gloria pointed out: “I don’t think a musical is a risky proposition. If you have a good story people will flock to see your movie.”

Good example

He cited as an example Mark Meily’s “Crying Ladies,” which Unitel produced for the Metro Manila Film Festival in 2003.

He recounted that well-meaning friends and colleagues cautioned him about “Crying.” “They said it was a black comedy. They said it was about death.  They said it was morbid. They said mega-star Sharon Cuneta had an offbeat role in the film, and worse, they said she didn’t have a love interest in it!”

Despite all the naysayers however, “Crying” defied all dire predictions and won major awards at the MMFF, raking in P70 million at the tills.

Gloria explained that cinema tickets were priced at P70 or P80 in 2003. “Today tickets cost P170 to P180. They have more than doubled. If we were to base it on head count alone, ‘Crying’ earned P150 million by today’s ticket prices.”

Perhaps, but the film would also have cost more to make.

At the time, Unitel tapped cyberspace to promote “Crying.”

“For ‘I Do,’ we are turning to social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter,” he said. “According to a Nielsen survey, the Philippines is one of the top five nations where videos are watched on the Internet.”

Fans demand quality

Gloria remarked that with the rise in high ticket prices, the composition of the movie-going crowd has changed as well.

The audience in a cineplex is not the same crowd that watches TV shows. “Times have changed,” Gloria continued.  “A family of five spends at least P1,000 to watch a film on the big screen. Moviegoers have become more demanding. They expect high quality for their money.

For “I Do,” which top-bills Gary Valenciano, Zsa Zsa Padilla, Ogie Alcasid, Eugene Domingo, Jaime Fabregas, Sam Concepcion, and Tippy Dos Santos, Unitel is pulling out all the stops to satisfy hard-to-please movie-goers.

“We are using two Red MX digital cameras on the set,” Gloria explained. “Before the shoot, we had dance rehearsals for the big scenes. We also set meetings between the production design team and the cast to discuss the costumes and sets.”

He said that “I Do” took over five years to make. “In Unitel we spend years developing a script. The actual shoot should be short by comparison. We also devote a lot of time to post-production.”

Next in line for Unitel are modern re-tellings of Lino Brocka’s “Ang Tatay Kong Nanay” and Severino Reyes’ “Mga Kuwento ni Lola Basyang.”

The seminal gay dramedy “Tatay” was updated into “My Mama Chuvanesses” by scriptwriters Jose Javier Reyes, Soxie Topacio, and Phil Noble.

If plans push through, Topacio will direct the film, with Joey de Leon reprising Dolphy’s role as the gay dad.  Roderick Paulate and John Lapus will star in it, too. “We hope to release two films this year,” he said.