We all know that Friday is just the beginning of an awesome weekend and an end to your 5-day suffering. So, if you’re a student, an employee, or just a couch potato, there is another reason why you should look forward to spending Friday nights with your family and friends.
For some reason, moviegoers in the Philippines usually visit the cinemas on Wednesdays just to see the film on its first-day screening. Since movies are usually shown in the middle of the week, some of us have no choice but to prolong that agony and wait for the weekend instead.
But film buffs don’t have to worry about this “major inconvenience” as Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) chairperson Liza Diño-Seguerra just announced on Thursday that local movie opening days may soon be moved from Wednesday to Friday.
In a Facebook post, Seguerra shared the results of FDCP’s meeting with producers, distributors, and theater owners to discuss policy guidelines and even the exhibition of films all over the Philippines.
Seguerra also discussed during the dialogue meeting the issues regarding, “admission prices, guaranteed days in every booked film and a holdback period for films released in cinemas before it goes to other platforms like VOD etc.”
“But more than reaching an agreement to the proposed solutions, my main takeaway from yesterday’s dialogue is the willingness of both parties (finally) to sit, talk, LISTEN and accept each other’s sentiments calmly and in good faith,” she added.
About a month ago, filmmaker and producer Erik Matti expressed his sentiment about the state of our local film industry.
And after the said announcement, Matti, who was also present at the dialogue, commented on Seguerra’s post, saying “Finally nag-uusap usap na. This is just going to get better. Thank you everyone!”
Seguerra didn’t mention when the changes will be implemented, but everyone at the meeting believed that this is a big step to finally reaching that one common goal–and that is to support the local film industry.