KARACHI: The Benedict Cumberbatch-starrer Doctor Strange dominated cinema screens across Pakistan over the Eid Al-Fitr holiday last week, causing resentment among local producers who said allotting more than 50 percent screening time to a foreign movie had hurt the country’s already struggling film industry.
“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” a Marvel Comics-based superhero film that summoned a blockbuster $185 million at North American movie theaters, released in Pakistan on May 6.
The massive sale of the film’s advance tickets prompted the Pakistan Film Producers Association (PFPA) in April to seek help from the government and request that local films be allowed to play during an extended eight-day window.
However, Badar Ikram, PFPA vice chairman, said 279 of 673 shows across the country were still allotted to Doctor Strange despite the fact that local films had been playing to full houses.
One Punjabi film and four Urdu movies, “Ghabrana Nahi Hai,” “Dum Mastam,” “Parde Mein Rehne Do” and “Chakkar,” were released during the Eid holiday in Pakistan.
“Giving such excessive screen time to foreign content is in clear violation of the country’s law,” Ikram told Arab News. “The film release could have easily been delayed for a week to grant local productions their due time.”
On the first of three days, after playing on all 673 screens, “Ghabrana Nahi Hai” earned Rs30 million, considered a huge amount for the local cinema industry.
Why, Ikram asked, were local films removed from screens when they were playing to full houses.
He said the Motion Pictures Ordinance 1979 clearly stated that Pakistani content should not be given less time than 85 percent of screen time.
However, Nadeem Mandviwalla, a film distributor and the owner of Atrium Cinemas, said the ordinance was made for a “different era” when there were single-screen cinemas which exhibited “only one film in a week for 22 shows.”
“The Censorship Rules of 1980 say that no less than 15 percent of time should be given to Pakistani films while foreign content can be played for the rest of the time,” he said.
Mandviwalla said all producers who opted to release their films on Eid knew Doctor Strange was scheduled to be screened on May 6.
“After the success of Spider-Man in December 2021 globally, it was inevitable for Doctor Strange to have similar success with the public,” he said. “This was the main reason why no big Pakistani production [house] opted to release its film on Eid Al-Fitr.”
Mandviwalla said cinemas in Pakistan had suffered because of the coronavirus pandemic, and they needed the business that Doctor Strange ultimately got them.
“The pandemic severely damaged the whole industry,” he said. “The business of exhibitors had been completely closed for more than 18 months. This resulted in the accumulation of huge amounts of liabilities and debt for them.”
Asked how screen time was determined for foreign and local content, Mandviwalla said it was a demand-driven phenomenon.
“If you have the required screens to play all films then all will get a fair share of exhibition time,” he explained. “However, cinemas which have only one screen will not have that option and choose the film which has the greatest public demand.”
“When [Pakistani film] WAAR was released in 2013, it competed with Akshay Kumar’s BOSS,” he said, referring to a Bollywood production. “However, the public wanted to watch WAAR. Every cinema in the country decided to play more shows of WAAR than BOSS. The cinema business across the world is driven by public demand.”
However, local producers said there should be a better mechanism to protect the local film industry against unfair competition.
“The release of Doctor Strange could have waited for a few days,” actor and film producer Adnan Siddiqui said in a Twitter post. “The last thing we need when the industry is finally opening up after two years is some foreign film hijacking our screens and relegating us in a corner. Home grown cinema has more right any day.”
PFPA’s Ikram said governments all over the world protected their own industry as a priority, adding that his association had approached the federal government with a hope that it would uphold “Pakistani interest.”
The PFPA wrote a letter to the country’s information secretary on April 26, saying advance bookings were made for Doctor Strange which was likely to occupy more than 50 percent of shows from May 6.
“If imported films are allowed to release during this [Eid] period, Pakistani films will suffer about Rs35-45 million of box potential,” said the letter.
“We are not against competition and release of foreign content,” Ikram added. “But the rights of local producers should be safeguarded.”
“Only five percent of the money from Doctor Strange will remain in Pakistan. However, our 100 percent revenue will remain here.”
Pakistan’s new information minister Marriyum Aurangzeb did not respond to Arab News queries.
