The Secretary of the Drama Guild Council, stating that the screening of Nowruz 1404 will probably not be the same as the previous years, and due to the coincidence of Nowruz and Ramadan, the first screening of next year will be on Eid-ul-Fitr. The float announced with the possibility of accessing cheap tickets.
According to his report cinema cinemaHomayoun Asadian, in response to the release of the comedy “70C” and how the screening conditions will go until the Fajr Film Festival and how long the screening of this comedy will continue, stated: It will continue until after the Fajr Film Festival. Of course, this film was requested to be released months ago, and for various reasons, we postponed its release because we did not want the release of several comedies at the same time, which would harm them and damage other films, so we reached this conclusion in a meeting with the owners of comedy films. that these films should not be screened at the same time, and whoever is screened later should be given the possibility that if it has good sales and the cinema owners keep it, after the festival and Even during the Eid holidays, the show should continue because this year, due to the coincidence of Nowruz and Ramadan, we almost don’t have Nowruz screenings in the usual sense. In fact, since this film could have been released at least from November 2nd, but it reached December 7th, this privilege was given to compensate for the delay in its release in this way, while it was clear that if all three comedy films were released at the same time, there would be almost a session left for the other films. It won’t stay and even now some films that have a contract are applying for a delay in the release.
Will the screening of Eid al-Fitr replace the screening of Nowruz?
Pointing out that the screening list of Fajr Film Festival is almost complete, he continued: After the festival, we have to see what new contracts will be signed, and after that we will gradually move on to Nowruz screenings. Of course, Nowruz this year coincides with the month of Ramadan, and since almost the last days of Nowruz holidays coincide with the end of Ramadan, perhaps it is better to say Eid al-Fitr instead of Nowruz.
Regarding whether the union council is planning for Nowruz screening or Eid al-Fitr, he said: Nowruz screening has always been acceptable. The cinema organization selected 10 to 12 films from among the films that were in the Fajr festival, which could be screened. The distributors of these films entered into negotiations with cinema owners, and finally, according to the number of groups that existed; The contracts were being finalized, but last year, the film organization announced seven films for Nowruz release, and I hope that we will definitely return to the same way for the new year, so that the broadcaster and cinematographer can reach a conclusion.
Do not rush to release the movie
He emphasized: Of course, this requires that my colleagues in the production, distribution and cinema halls agree not to rush the film. Sometimes, the calmness of the screening during the year is for the benefit of the entire Iranian cinema. If we all rush to release our films, we will both hurt the films and keep seasons of the year empty. This year, the Drama Guild Council tried to air the films throughout the year so that, in addition to not having an empty season, the least amount of damage would be done to other films.
Asadian added: So far, the total sales of cinema have reached more than 1,300 billion tomans, and I believe that by the end of the year, sales will easily reach more than 1,500 billion. This figure is a significant increase compared to last year, but according to what I have emphasized many times and I will repeat again, these sales figures do not mean the prosperity of cinema. Cinema boom is the time when all the movies reach a relative level of sales. This year, the number of comedy films was more, and because of this, the amount of sales has increased from last year, but the number of loss-making films is also much higher.
The number of comedies will decline next year, but…
In response to whether it is possible to predict that cinema will be in a better condition next year, according to the results of the recent meetings of the Production Licensing Council, the Secretary of the Theater Trade Union Council said: There are two points in this regard; First, we have to see whether people will go to the cinema or not, and secondly, I don’t think we will have as many comedy movies next year as this year. Last year, we had two or three comedy films on the screen, and this year we have five, six films, and only one or two more comedy films are left. It seems that the number of comedy films in this segment will decline in the coming year. But an important point is that due to the terrible increase in production costs, which has caused a low budget film to cost at least 25 billion tomans, and such a film must have sales of at least 75 to 80 billion tomans in order to break even. – Filmmakers avoid making any works other than comedies because, except for government institutions that fund their favorite films, the private sector has no desire to invest in non-comedy films. Therefore, with this state of expenses, if we are going to proceed in the same way next year, we will have problems.
A new plan to increase the price of cinema tickets and provide easier access to cheap tickets
Asadian emphasized: We have no other way to compensate for the expenses except by increasing the price of cinema tickets, which is natural. This should be done in an agreement with the Ministry of Guidance in order to reach a solution that creates more security for the production with floating tickets, and the audience also has access to cheap tickets. have We have submitted a plan to the Ministry of Guidance for this matter and we are waiting for the new officials to review and discuss to see what results we will reach.
Source: ISNA