Erik Matti: ‘We cannot go on making movies where no one sees them’

Leo Bukas

Nagpahayag ng pangamba at pagkabahala ang premyadong director na si Erik Matti tungkol sa resulta sa takilya ng mga Pinoy movies na ipinalabas nitong simula ng taong 2019.Noong January 30 ay sabay nagbukas sa mga sinehan ang pelikulang Bato ni Robin Padilla mula sa ALV Films na ini-release ng Regal Entertainment, at ang Tol ni Jessy Mendiola mula naman sa Reality Entertainment.Nitong Feb. 6, sabay namang nag-showing ang dalawa ring Pinoy movies – Hanggang Kailan (Viva Films) at Elise (Regal Entertainment) -- na hindi rin gaanong tinanggap ng moviegoers.Sa post ni Direk Erik ay ikinalungkot niya ang mga pangyayari. Nanawagan din siya ng suporta mula sa gobyerno para sa movie industry.Narito ang kabuuan ng kanyang post sa kanyang Facebook account:“The state of our film industry, the business of it, is in a dire situation. Someone should do something about it. Government should intervene. This is not a slow death anymore.“We are on life support and we need resuscitation. No more pointing fingers. I think we’re beyond that at this point. This is a plea for help.“The film industry is at its busiest the past three years but no one gets to see the movies we make except for the sporadic mega hits. Hundreds of movies are being made now but no one is really doing good business including the big studios. What happened to our local audience?“The past three weeks several local movies were screened, including one of ours, and it didn’t make good business despite all the marketing fanfare. This week Regal and Viva premiered films and again it wasn’t received well at the box office despite all the marketing and promising stories.“Even MMFF no matter how much they claim with pride that it was hit, it wasn’t. It didn’t make as much money as the previous years. And instead of looking at the problem head on of the dwindling audience they just chose to deny it.“Is it the online platforms killing us? Is it support of cinemas? Is it Hollywood? Is it bad marketing? Is it esoteric, irrelevant, tired or uninteresting stories? Is it traffic? Is it downloads? Is it poverty? Has our audience outgrown our films? I really don’t know at this point.“All I know is, we cannot go on making movies where no one sees them. We cannot blindly just trudge along busily working on our films without thinking about whether all this passion is really worth it.“We cannot keep on spending millions for movies that no one gets to see. This is alarming. SOMEONE SOMEWHERE SOMEHOW SHOULD DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS.“This industry nurtures its artists with our local filmfests. we look after our filmworkers with so many films being produced. We strengthen ties on our international filmfest connections. We revel on the little things we accomplish and splash it on big bold letters in the headlines.“But are we really doing something for the film industry where it matters most? Are we really getting our films to the audience it was actually made for? Or are we just bringing them to the small audience we embarrassingly deserve?”

Sa post ni Direk Erik ay ikinalungkot niya ang mga pangyayari. Nanawagan din siya ng suporta mula sa gobyerno para sa movie industry.Narito ang kabuuan ng kanyang post sa kanyang Facebook account:“The state of our film industry, the business of it, is in a dire situation. Someone should do something about it. Government should intervene. This is not a slow death anymore.“We are on life support and we need resuscitation. No more pointing fingers. I think we’re beyond that at this point. This is a plea for help.“The film industry is at its busiest the past three years but no one gets to see the movies we make except for the sporadic mega hits. Hundreds of movies are being made now but no one is really doing good business including the big studios. What happened to our local audience?“The past three weeks several local movies were screened, including one of ours, and it didn’t make good business despite all the marketing fanfare. This week Regal and Viva premiered films and again it wasn’t received well at the box office despite all the marketing and promising stories.“Even MMFF no matter how much they claim with pride that it was hit, it wasn’t. It didn’t make as much money as the previous years. And instead of looking at the problem head on of the dwindling audience they just chose to deny it.“Is it the online platforms killing us? Is it support of cinemas? Is it Hollywood? Is it bad marketing? Is it esoteric, irrelevant, tired or uninteresting stories? Is it traffic? Is it downloads? Is it poverty? Has our audience outgrown our films? I really don’t know at this point.“All I know is, we cannot go on making movies where no one sees them. We cannot blindly just trudge along busily working on our films without thinking about whether all this passion is really worth it.“We cannot keep on spending millions for movies that no one gets to see. This is alarming. SOMEONE SOMEWHERE SOMEHOW SHOULD DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS.“This industry nurtures its artists with our local filmfests. we look after our filmworkers with so many films being produced. We strengthen ties on our international filmfest connections. We revel on the little things we accomplish and splash it on big bold letters in the headlines.“But are we really doing something for the film industry where it matters most? Are we really getting our films to the audience it was actually made for? Or are we just bringing them to the small audience we embarrassingly deserve?”

Nagpahayag ng pangamba at pagkabahala ang premyadong director na si Erik Matti tungkol sa resulta sa takilya ng mga Pinoy movies na ipinalabas nitong simula ng taong 2019.Noong January 30 ay sabay nagbukas sa mga sinehan ang pelikulang Bato ni Robin Padilla mula sa ALV Films na ini-release ng Regal Entertainment, at ang Tol ni Jessy Mendiola mula naman sa Reality Entertainment.Nitong Feb. 6, sabay namang nag-showing ang dalawa ring Pinoy movies – Hanggang Kailan (Viva Films) at Elise (Regal Entertainment) -- na hindi rin gaanong tinanggap ng moviegoers.

Ibinahagi ng director na si Erik Matti na nangangamba siya sa lumalamlam na estado ng Philippine movie industry.

Erik Matti: ‘We cannot go on making movies where no one sees them’ | PUSH.COM.PH