Capri Cinema To remain Closed Due To Low Footfall, But Will Screen Top Gun Maverick! Can Local Movies keep Our Cinemas Alive?

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Capri Cinema shared the following update just recently via a Facebook Post:

 “Capri will remain closed from Monday till Thursday due to low audience footfall and high operating costs …the cinema will resume shows from Friday as Tom Cruise’s latest offering, Top Gun: Maverick releases the same day. “From Friday 27th May. Top Gun Maverick in Urdu,” the statement further read as it announced four shows per day. “Daily four shows: 3 pm, 5:30 pm, 8 pm and 10:30 pm.”

Is The Pandemic To Blame For The Slow Death Of The Cinema Industry Or Is It Due To The Sub-par Plotlines Of Local Movies That Struggle To Attract Pakistani Audiences?

Here’s the thing. Just like our showbiz industry that suffered a setback due to Covid, just like our filmmakers, cast and crew who had to ride out the hard times so did the cinema owners. And just like you, they have a business to run and survive. Let that sink in.

Just like you, they need the footfall, the ticket sales and the financial gains to stay in the business. Give them ‘Top Gun Maverick’ & ‘Dr. Strange’ & they’ll win a marathon. Give them local cinema, and they will crawl. They are now being forced to gamble, on the toss of a coin, on a business venture – their cinema. However, they didn’t choose this for themselves. When they set up a cinema, they just wanted to play movies, good movies, movies that the public will want to come and watch! Movies the audience will gladly pay to come and watch. Movies that the Pakistani awaam feels are well worth their money spent as in, paisa vasool. That movie might or might not be ‘Ghabrana Nahi Hai’, or ‘Dum Mastam’ (I sense a gamble there) but it will definitely be ‘Dr. Strange’, ‘Jurassic World Dominion’ or ‘Top Gun Maverick’ (sure shot win)! Don’t deprive them of their sure winners.

Let’s Use The BCG Matrix To Identify Movies That Can Help Pakistani Cinemas Thrive

For those of you who are familiar with business terms. Cash Cows are the products that help run a business. You can milk them for money. Cash cows are known to be a company’s most valuable and competitive product or business division as they contribute to a significant chunk of a firm’s operating profits, without incurring too many costs. ‘Top Gun Maverick’ and ‘Dr. Strange’ are those movies – the Cash Cows that will keep cinemas like Capri running so they can survive the low footfall from movies that are a Question Mark or a problem child. Eg. ‘Dum Mastam’ or ‘Parde Mein Rehne Do’ or ‘Ghabrana Nahi Hai’. These movies are termed Question Marks or Problem Child in the business sense, as they inhabit a low market share in a high growth market. As opposed to the Cash cow, or Star (high growth, high market share), Question Marks tend to suck up costs and not give back in revenue. take a look at a visual representation here.

But in order to make the Question Marks pay, you have to change strategy (content), make it better and convert them to Stars. The market growth is present, but the product is not delivering. hence, filmmakers, go back to the drawing board and find out what’s going wrong. How to turn their Question Mark into a Star for the cinema owners and their own survival – a win-win for everyone.

However, this turnaround is possible only if healthy competition is encouraged within the industry!

The Battle Of The Fittest

Yes, competition is good for business and our industry, it will improve the quality of our films… but it is also harsh, and unforgiving. It will skim off the best of the best, shedding off the ‘not so good’, till only the excellent will survive, in the long run!

This argument is totally competition driven. Look at Mr Burger, it has survived amidst the Burger Kings and McDonald’s of the world. So have the multitude Chai walas, amidst the imported franchise cafes teeming in Pakistan. Both are doing good business. Why? Because they have delivered what their customers want – masala chai, tandoori naan for the chai wala and chocolate-dipped churros for the cafes. Point to note, not all chai walas and cafes have survived the competition, only the best remain in business. But the chai wala did not ask the government to close down the cafes to let local businesses flourish! He made sure his product was up to his customer’s tastes and preferences. So that he could sell a cup of Kashmiri chai for over Rs. 300 and his customer would buy it!

Fostering A Culture Of Collaboration Is Tantamount To Success

Another point to note is that filmmakers need to cooperate with each other. Releasing 5 films at the same time is tantamount to business suicide in a market that is already struggling to accept your films. Why not stagger the release so that each film, or at most two, get their moment and (revenue). Think of it this way, if my child has 4 lollipops to choose from, he will pick one or two at max, not all 4. Unless he’s planning to eat lollipops for breakfast, lunch, dinner and tea time! That ain’t happening folks! Or unless all the lollipops promise something vibrantly different and spectacular, in which case, he buys the entire bag. But let’s concentrate on selling that ONE lollipop first? We can get to the bag later!

In the same way that filmmakers need to collaborate, so do the cinema houses. They will have to let go off some screen time (profitability) and grant local cinema schedules and times that suit the public and where maximum footfall can be ensured. Our showbiz industry is, after all, still in fledgling mode and needs all the support it can get. Together we can!

Lastly, a note to all filmmakers. If there are no cinemas, how will you screen your movies?

You can’t buy them all the cinema houses now can you, I’m assuming there’s a law against monopoly and respecting audience choice? … Just sayin’! Capri cinema holds dear memories for me & I’m confident ‘Top Gun Maverick’ will ace it, but not so sure about local cinema, not yet. But yes, one day, I hope to see the same performance at the local cinema. I hope to see a footfall for ‘Ghabrana Nahi Hai’ which is as great as ‘Dr. Strange’ or ‘Top Gun Maverick’ dubbed in Urdu But for that, we must give ourselves time, a space for cinemas to keep running, and a run for our money.

It will take time, but it will happen. We have to trust the process. If we strangle the very source that gives us a place to tell our stories, we will have no platform to tell our stories. And that will be the beginning and end of it all. I bet no Pakistani wants that.

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