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From The New Straits Times Online. Link:
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Thu...icle/index_html
Directors laud call to raise Hollywood movie ticket price
KUALA LUMPUR: Local film directors support the proposal by the Malaysian Film Producers' Association to hike the ticket price for Hollywood movies.
They agreed it was one step towards the development of local films.
"It is a good step but it should not stop there," said award-winning director Datuk Paduka Shuhaimi Baba.
She said another way to help the industry was for local producers to have a bigger cut of the box-office collection.
"Currently, producers and cinema operators are sharing the ticket sales equally. Producers should get a higher cut."
She said cinema operators could also share the promotional costs of local movies.
Shuhaimi said many countries were imposing regulations to protect their movie industry.
Director Ahmad Idham Ahmad Nazri said cinema operators would also benefit from higher ticket prices for Hollywood movies.
"The screening for a local movie now is limited to 14 days -- the minimum required by regulations -- as cinema operators will replace it with Hollywood movies to generate more income.
"With a hike, they will get more income from one or two Hollywood movies, thus encouraging them to give more days to local movies."
Director Afdlin Shauki said the number of Hollywood movies in local cinemas should be limited.
He said China only allowed 20 Hollywood movies to be shown annually.
"It means only the best movies from Hollywood are shown, which is good for movie-goers"
Afdlin, however, cautioned that the ticket price hike could backfire.
"At the current ticket price, you can watch two movies, one Hollywood and one local. But if you increase the price to RM20, movie-goers might just skip local movies altogether."
National Film Development Corporation director-general Mohd Mahyiddin Mustakim said the body would study the proposal before a decision is made.
"We welcome any proposal or effort to improve and develop the industry. But we have to look at each proposal and its overall effect on the industry."
I came across this news today, I was stunned to see such a thing. C'mon, just because the price of movie tickets increased, doesn't mean everyone would go for local movies, especially when you got lame local movies, either with terrible storylines or graphics. I don't mean that the local movie industry needs to close down, but at least focus on more high quality movies. For example, I've heard all the hype about the Susuk, when i watched it, it was low quality, boring and in some cases, dumb for a horror movie. It's just like the movie makers are just making a movie to earn that bit of fame and fortune. It's not like Malaysia doesn't produce good movies, I heard that Puteri Gunung Ledang was great, the P Ramlee movies are still watched on Astro, Scenario has been famous for so many years, even Cicakman (even though it wasn't a GREAT movie) broke new ground. Now the movie industry is complaining that they're not earning enough, and they want to increase the ticket price, so that they could have more funding for more movies. Even if we had unlimited funding, no one would watch local movies if they're poorly produced. Just look at the LYN forums, we discuss all types of movies, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, US, UK, but we hardly talk about Malaysian movies. Even if we do talk about local movies, that would be because they were either produced with a high budget or because they're incredibly dumb, pick your side.
What do you think?