Bright nights at the movies

Just two short months ago, movie-industry pundits were predicting that 2011 was going to be one of the worst years the business had known for a while. The floods had forced the closure of more than 20 per cent of the country’s multiplex theatres, several movies, both local and foreign, had been postponed and filmgoers simply weren’t in the mood to be entertained.
 Now it looks like the pundits had it completely wrong.
“This may be the year that the billing reaches Bt4 billion for the first time,” says Pannatat Phromsupa, general manager of United International Pictures, distributor of such Hollywood films as “The Adventures of Tintin” and “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol”. Although the movie industry has grown continuously every year, even despite the political chaos of 2010, billing has been in between Bt3.2 and Bt3.6 billion in the last few years.
Thai films are also seeing steady growth. The major Thai movie studios like Sahamongkol Film and GTH report higher profits this year than last: a 10 per cent increase for Sahamongkol and 20 per cent for GTH.
“We are lucky that two of the three movies we released this year – ‘Laddaland’ and ‘Suckseed Huay Khan Thep’ – were so overwhelmingly successful,” says GTH president Visute Poolvoralaks.
Sahamongkol puts its higher take down to the increase in shopping centres with multiplex theatres attached, which eased the effects of the floods. The studio reasons that while people living in dry areas stuck to their usual lifestyles, those affected by flooding moved into non-flood areas too and going to the movies proved the form of entertainment they were most likely to pay for.
“The rise in revenue might also reflect the increase in ticket prices earlier this year,” says Somsak “Sia Jiang” Techarattanaprasert, president of Sahamongkol Film.
Many Thai and foreign movies were put on hold during the floods, especially when the water in Bangkok’s outskirts seemed to be threatening the inner city. With several multiplex theatres already closed, big-budget Hollywood films such as “The Adventures of Tintin” and “Real Steel” were postponed along with many Thai movies, among them GTH’s “ATM Er Rak Er Rer” and Pen-ek Ratanaruang’s “Fon Tok Kuen Fah” (“Headshot”).
“Most of the films that were delayed were blockbusters or Thai films that would attract large audiences. The flood situation was inevitably going to affect the box office takings,” says Pannatat.
The movies that did open as the waters continued to rise – “The Help” and “Tower Heist”, for example – were medium budget films usually shown on limited release mostly in downtown multiplexes. With no blockbusters taking up inner city screens, the medium budget films hit the big time.
“It was an unusual situation. Since the cake was smaller during the floods, the slices were bigger for anyone releasing a movie,” says Pannatat.
Meanwhile, in the dry provinces, Thai movies were raking in big baht. Bangkok and Chiang Mai used to the stalwarts of the movie business, as they were the only two centres with standard multiplex theatres. These days, multiplexes are all over country and Thai movies are popular with the new audience.
Compared to the political violence Bangkok witnessed in 2010, all three agree that the floods caused more problems than the protests.
“The protests were in a certain area so people could live a normal life so long as they stayed out of that area. The flooding affected a vast area. We didn’t know anything, we had to keep an eye on the situation day by day, and people were not in the mood to see movies,” says Visute.
“Now people are busy fixing their houses and trying to get their lives back to normal. That’s costing them a lot of money. I don’t know how much they’ll have left to spend on entertainment. It’s too early to tell.”
Pannatat agrees. “We need more time to get back to normal. It’s not just people rehabilitating their homes. We’ll also lose student groups, since they are busy with extra classes to make up the time lost during the flood. I don’t see us returning to normal until the second quarter of 2012.”
Do they have any contingency plans should unexpected situations occur again next year?
“The government should have some measurements in place to ensure this disaster doesn’t happen again next year,” says Sia Jiang.
Visute prefers to be cautious and ready to adjust plans as and when a situation arises.
“For the government, I would say that it’s okay to say this time around, ‘we are inexperienced in controlling such a crisis’. But I don’t think we can tolerate any excuses if there is an uncontrollable crisis of any nature again next year,” he says.
 

Biggest Thai box-office earners
1. “The Legend of King Naresuan Part 3” Bt210 million
2. “The Legend of King Naresuan Part 4” Bt135 million
3. “Laddaland” Bt117 million
4. “Suckseed Huay Khan Thep” Bt79 million
5. “30 Kamlung Jaew” Bt72 million
6. “30+ Sode on Sale” Bt70 million
7. “Teng Nong Jewon Bin” Bt70 million
8. “Love Julinsee Rak Man Yai Mak” Bt45 million
9. “Pumpuang” Bt45 million
10. “Top Secret Wairoon Pun Lan” Bt38 million