DECLINING MMFF ATTENDANCE? WHAT STAKEHOLDERS ARE SAYING

DEBATES OVER THE FUTURE of Philippine cinema have been reignited with industry stakeholders offering contrasting views on “declining” audience turnout at theaters, especially during the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF), considered as “peak season” for Filipino moviegoing.

- By NATHALIE TOMADA

The Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA)-backed MMFF is the only time of year in the Philippines when theaters show local films exclusively.

The MMFF Execom previously denied releasing any official box-office figures or rankings for the eight official entries to the media. But the question is: Will the 2025 filmfest, now on its last stretch in cinemas, match or overtake the P800 million earnings of the previous year? The 2023 MMFF remains the highest-grossing edition in history, with total receipts of over P1 billion from 10 entries.

In a social media post, filmmaker Jun Robles Lana publicly criticized the ticket prices as a major factor in alienating Filipino families from cinemas this 51st MMFF season.

“For decades, the MMFF was the “people's festival.’ It was the one time of year when ordinary workers took their children to the mall to see their idols,” Lana said, saying that a family of four now needs at least P1,500 just to watch a single film, an amount that does not even cover transportation to the theater and even a “bag of popcorn” during the screening.

“By pricing the ordinary Filipino out of the theater, the industry hasn’t just lost customers, it has lost its soul. Cinema has shifted from a shared national culture to a middle-class privilege,” said the director behind the current MMFF Third Best Picture (tied with “Manila’s Finest”) “Call Me Mother.”

Lana further raised the contradiction of “promoting” MMFF as a “national” film festival while maintaining ticket prices that exclude a large portion of the population.

“Until we admit that cinema has become a luxury that the ‘P500 Noche Buena’ family cannot afford, we are simply watching the slow, expensive sunset of Philippine cinema,” he said, referencing the controversial remark by the Department of Trade and Industry, Sec. Cristina Roque that P500 is sufficient for the traditional Christmas Eve feast.