MANILA, Philippines – Despite the high risk in producing movies these days, GMA Network Incorporated is unperturbed as it announced on Thursday, October 24, that it was putting more money in film production. 

Buoyed by the success of its film Firefly which won Best Picture in the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) 2023, GMA disclosed that its board of directors approved the conversion of P18.75 million of its advances in its subsidiary, GMA Network Films Incorporated (GNFI), into equity. 

“The increase in the paid-up capital of GNFI, is aligned with its current and forthcoming project requirements, as the Company aggressively returns to film production after several years of hiatus,” the Philippines’ largest media conglomerate told the Philippine Stock Exchange.  

Although GMA’s Firefly did not earn as much as Star Cinema’s Rewind in the MMFF 2023, the critically acclaimed movie boosted the company’s reputation and earnings in 2024 as advertising revenues, mainly from its core business of broadcasting, declined by 8% in the first half of this year. Net income dropped 49%, from P1.1 billion in the first half of 2023 to P602 million in the same period in 2024. 

“Airtime revenues remain challenged with the changing landscape in viewer and advertiser behavior as major factors,” GMA Network said in its second quarter 2024 earnings report last August. 

However, GMA noted good news in the revenue category of “sale of services,” which includes ticket sales from its movies. 

GMA said that “providing the boost this period for this revenue category were box-office receipts from movie production, particularly from the multi-awarded comeback film of GMA Pictures – Firefly.”

Firefly, a drama about a boy in search of a mystical island of fireflies as told to him by his departed mother, conveys the messages of courage, hope, and a mother’s love.

Movie gambles

This year, GMA Pictures and GMA Entertainment Group produced Balota for the Cinemalaya Film Festival last August. The film, which opened in commercial theaters on October 16, stars Marian Rivera playing the role of Teacher Emmy, who has to save a ballot box (set in pre-automated elections era) containing the results from a tight local electoral race. 

Rivera was one of two who won Best Actress in Cinemalaya 2024 (the other was Gabby Padilla). In her acceptance speech, she said the award was for all teachers who play their role as members of the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI) during elections. 

“Sa lahat po ng Teacher Emmy na matapang at ginagawa ang lahat para protektahan ang boto ng sambayanan, kahit na ang sariling buhay ang malaan sa panganib,” Rivera said. 

(This is for all the brave Teacher Emmys who do their part in protecting the people’s votes, even if it means risking their lives.)

Balota, a low-budget film shot in just six days, is now on its second week, a sign that the movie is being patronized. Theater owners normally yank out films that don’t do well after the first week.

Next up is Lost Sabungeros, also a Cinemalaya entry of GMA Pictures, a documentary about missing sabungeros (cockfighting aficionados). It will be shown in the QCinema International Film Festival this month. Its screening at the Cinemalaya Film Festival was canceled in August due to “security concerns.” 

Lost Sabungeros will be followed by Hello, Love, Again, a co-production with GMA’s erstwhile fierce competitor, ABS-CBN. The two media and entertainment companies have teamed up after the Duterte administration shut down ABS-CBN’s broadcast business in 2020.

Expectations are high that the sequel to Hello, Love, Goodbye, starring Kapamilya star Kathryn Bernardo, and Kapuso heartthrob Alden Richards, is going to be a box-office hit, as their fans have been waiting for five years for a sequel. It will open in cinemas on November 13.

Hello, Love, Goodbye held the record of being  the Philippines’ box-office king in 2019 after earning P839 million in ticket sales. It held the record for four years until the tearjerker comeback movie of real-life Kapuso couple Dingdong Dantes and Marian Rivera Rewind set a new box-office record with P922 million in worldwide ticket sales after it premiered in MMFF 2023.

GMA and ABS-CBN, both publicly listed companies, badly need the earnings from Hello, Love, Again to reach their financial targets in 2024. 

After Hello, Love, Again, GMA Pictures has Green Bones as its entry in the MMFF 2024, which starts on December 25, Christmas Day.  

Kapuso stars Dennis Trillo and Ruru Madrid play the lead roles in the movie. The suspense drama film is about a criminal set to be released from prison after accumulating good conduct time.

National Artist Ricky Lee co-wrote the script with Anj Atienza. The movie is directed by Zig Dulay, who also helmed the critically acclaimed Firefly. 

During an MMFF event last Wednesday, October 23, GMA Pictures executive vice president Nessa Valdellon described Green Bones as a “very powerful film.” 

“If you cried in Firefly, you will cry even more [in this movie],” she said. 

Streaming services have also opened up a new revenue stream for film producers.

Aside from Firefly, GMA Pictures also produced last year The Cheating Game, starring real-life Kapuso couple Julie Ann San Jose and Rayver Cruz. GMA describes the film as a “deep-dive into the psyche of two characters who deal differently with betrayal.” 

Both Firefly and The Cheating Game were also shown on streaming platforms such as Netflix after being shown in theaters.

GMA has not been consistent as other film producers in making movies. In the more than two-decade history of GMA Pictures, there have been years when it did not make any movies. 

However, GMA produced Jose Rizal, the biggest historical film of the country about its national hero, for the 1998 MMFF. It won 17 out of 18 awards. The movie, directed by the late Marilou Diaz-Abaya with Cesar Montano as Jose Rizal, was digitally restored and remastered and shown this year for the 50th anniversary of the MMFF. GMA likewise produced the critically acclaimed Muro Ami, also helmed by Diaz-Abaya.

Very few films now earn as moviegoers prefer to watch in low-cost streaming platforms rather than in theaters, which now charge around P350 per ticket. Producing movies has thus become a high-risk venture. So far, only two films out of more than 100 Filipino movies shown this year have done well at the box office – Star Cinema’s Rewind (which carried over from 2023) and Un/Happy for You of Star Cinema and Viva Films. Un/Happy for You, the reunion movie of Joshua Garcia and Julia Barretto, earned P320 million from ticket sales as of end of August.

The annual MMFF, however, provides producers a “lifeline” since the festival is held in December when consumers have more money than usual due to the Christmas bonuses, and when foreign films aren’t shown for at least two weeks, making it a captive market. – Rappler.com 

ALSO ON RAPPLER

• Can local movies still make money in age of streaming?
• Is there a new Filipino cinema audience?
• Streaming services ‘winning hearts and minds’ of Filipinos, says new study
• Why haven’t we won an Oscar? House probe puts spotlight on Philippine cinema
• How big is the Philippines’ creative economy – and are you part of it?