Thai film industry still attractive despite 2016 slump, producer says
THAILAND’S Bt4-billion film industry is still attractive to overseas investors wanting to make movies here even though last year’s ticket sales were below expectations, a producer said yesterday.
“Thailand is still lucrative both for international film distribution and for overseas investors to co-produce movies with local partners,” said Sangar Chatchairungruang, a producer at Transformation Films.
Transformation Films is an example in this regard. In 2015, South Korea-based CJ Entertainment decided to place its first footprint in Thailand through a partnership with this company.
The Nation has also learned that last year, a group of Thai businesspeople and Hong Kong-based Yin Chuang International formed a 51:49 joint venture called Thai Phoenix Culture Entertainment to co-produce films with Thai production houses for major Internet networks in China and cinemas in Thailand. Under this partnership, the JV aims to make about five to 10 movies this year with a total investment of Bt500 million.
During the first couple years after its establishment, Transformation Films spent about Bt200 million on improving its internal capacity, such as constructing new studios and upgrading existing ones. It also conducted a series of film-crew training programmes to make sure its production teams were well equipped with the same quality and standards as in South Korea.
Last year, the company premiered its first comedy film, “20 Mai” (“Suddenly Twenty”), which was remade from the top-rated Korean movie “Miss Granny” with an investment of Bt40 million. However, ticket sales were not impressive, as it made just Bt25 million.
Sangar insisted that his partner saw potential in Thailand as a long-term market, so it was continuing to invest and would make four more Thai movies this year.
“We have earmarked about Bt450 million for four movies this year, which will begin with ‘Mister Hurt’, to be premiered next month,” he said.
Apart from developing the skills of its staff, the company is seeking a new business model to manage risk, such as finding a good combination of co-investment among production houses, film distributors, independent investors and sponsors. Under this strategy, Transformation Film targets about Bt700 million to Bt800 million in revenue this year.
The producer of the company Sangar believes that the film industry do better this year than in 2016, which experienced unexpected events and an economic slowdown.
The value of the industry last year suffered a big drop of 20-25 per cent from 2015 to about Bt4 billion.
However, he believes that this year will also be challenging for local filmmakers as there are a number of big blockbusters from Hollywood in the pipeline.
In a previous interview with Jina Osothsilp, chief executive officer of another Thai production company, GDH 559, he said that of the 39 local movies made last year, only two, “Luang Pee Jazz 4G” and “Fan Day”, made more than Bt100 million.
