December 01, 2011 when my friend and I decided to watch Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part One. The movie theater was jump packed with Vampire and Wolf lovers as the last sequel of the Twilight Saga unfolds. As I was standing and waiting for cinemas to open, I hurriedly notice a huge crowd approaching the other cinema house; I was shocked when I found out that the waiting list for the movie Won’t Last a Day without You starring Sarah Geronimo and Gerald Anderson was also vast.
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, commonly referred to as Breaking Dawn, is a 2011/2012 two-part romantic fantasy film directed by Bill Condon and based on the novel Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer. The two parts form the fourth and final installment in the The Twilight Saga series. All three main cast members, Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner, reprise their roles.
Won’t Last a Day Without You o the other hand revolves around DJ Heidi (Sarah Geronimo), who gives love advice to radio listeners. Her advice mostly involves instigation for problematic couples to break up. On the process it somehow developed her into being a man-hater. But when Andrew (Gerald Anderson), came into her life, she eventually learned to forgive men and fell in love, once again.
With these two movies, we can relate that both are them are romantic films but with different attacks to capture audience. The first one was more on fantasy and the other was mores on a romantic comedy film. After staring at the huge crowd, questions burst into my mind. How these personal differences of people will affect the revenue of each movie? Is it making our Philippine Movie Industry lively? How does this affect our economy?
Breaking Dawn Part One got $16.9 million and was placed as number one as the overall block buster movie in the world.
The movie is now on the path to making $40 million over a three-day weekend and $65 million over the five-day frame. "Breaking Dawn - Part 1" has raked in $196.2 million after eight days.
Breaking Dawn Part One caught the hearts of thousands or even millions of Filipinos nationwide and produces 141.28 million in a span of one week.
Meanwhile, Won’t Last a Day without You got P20M for its first day of showing over 100 theaters nationwide.
Comparing these two figures, we can clearly see that foreign movies have greater impact to Filipinos rather our very own movies. If we can relate this to boxing, this match is a TKO. This sad reality made our Philippine Movie Industry in a comatose state.
Because of those block buster films foreign country offered, the interests of Filipinos were shifted that downgraded the revenue our local films should earn. Instead of buying tickets for those movies that are proudly Filipino made, they are craving to watch even the last full shows of foreign films.
What happens to our Philippine movie industry? It is struggling for survival. It wasn’t able to raise funds to give its annual Luna Awards which is the local equivalent of Hollywood’s Oscar.
Will there be an impact to our economy? Of course there is. If our local movie industry is not collecting that much high revenue thus it will contribute lesser tax to our government and that will create a retroactive effect on all Filipinos.
So how will we boost our economy through our Philippine Movie Industry? Therefore, there is a need to re-assess the industry, review the policies governing the film industry and, most important of all, provide plan aimed at reviving and sustaining the growth of the Philippine movie industry. Movie makers should catch to the latest trends of technology foreign movie makers are using. Our government too can help by imposing lesser tax on local movies and providing high ones to the foreign movies.
As for me, how can I help our movie industry in my little ways? I have realized that I should give more preference to the movies made by Filipinos. I should inhibit patriotism even at this simple little way. And the next time I’ll visit the movie house, I will follow the waiting line for a movie like Won’t Last A day Without You rather than just another foreign film like Breaking Dawn.
