Esmaili: If the production of a film does not have a professional payment, it will not have a successful release / A weak film will harm the cinema of the Islamic Revolution.

Fars News Agency – Cinema Group: Various topics have always been raised in the form of movies throughout the history of this valuable art, topics that cinema may be the secret of some of them. Topics that are even important can turn a film into an important work in human history and guarantee its longevity.
Maybe this matter had caused many moviegoers to consider the topic and content as the main and fundamental pillar of making a work until a few stops before this cinema train.
But it didn’t take long until perhaps, like many other priorities of social life, the box office and sales were prioritized in the distribution process, although this issue in itself was not a problem.
The ambiguous point of the story was where the audience’s taste changed to the point where the term box office movie referred to films with low content that basically lacked a serious story or message.
In the meantime, the Sourah Cinema Organization affiliated to the Islamic Revolution Art Field has 146 active cinema halls in 36 cities and has a large share of the box office of every movie, for this reason, we had a conversation with Hadi Esmaili, the vice president of distribution of the Sourah Cinema Organization, to investigate this issue.
You can see the details of this conversation below.

Fars: In your opinion, what topics and works in Iranian cinema do you consider to be most welcomed by the audience?
Esmaili: In the current situation, the reception of films is clear. If you look at the list of best-selling films, usually certain comedy and social films are at the top of the best-selling works of Iranian cinema. Usually comedy films or social films with famous actors are at the top of the sales list.

Correct payment of the film is the most important factor of success in the screening

Fars: A large number of cinemas in the country are under the management of the art field, what works are the priority of the art field?
Esmaili: In discussing the priority of screening in the art field, we consider two aspects for each work; The first aspect refers to the theme and content of the work, which includes the goals of the production and the message that the film intends to convey, and the second aspect refers to the review of the payment of each film and includes the form, shape of the production and the composition of the production team. Usually, the content is the word that the filmmaker intends to express, and it is internal and includes the payment side, the external aspect and the attractiveness of the film in the eyes of the audience.
But the point that the art field intends to give a coefficient to what works; Naturally, works that target the fundamental issues of the Islamic Revolution such as hope, progress, morality, family, women, resistance, justice, etc. in terms of content and topics. These issues are among the priority issues of the Islamic Revolution and naturally, they should be placed as content priorities in the scene of our confrontation with the opponents of the Islamic Revolution; One of the signs of these works is that all people who are not in conflict with

The Islamic revolution, with any level of loyalty to the revolution, is even one step closer to the missions of the Islamic revolution, whether in behavior, interest, or mentality. But the important thing is that if we do not present this content to the audience in the form of proper and professional payment – no matter how important and fundamental the content is – it will not be seen and even giving it a factor in the screening will not only have no effect, maybe the result take a picture We have also seen examples of this type where the subject of the film was of great importance, but due to inappropriate payment such as not using good actors, direction and story, or inappropriate advertising and not paying attention to the elements that are important for success, the audience It has not and has even turned into its opposite.

We are looking for a new audience

Fars: What strategy do you have to attract the audience? Basically, how do you evaluate the cinema audience?

Esmaili: It should be seen that we have to do our cultural planning with Bana with the current cinema audience or we are trying to add a new audience to the cinema portfolio. This audience happens to be the same audience that valued the story-telling and hero-oriented cinema in the sixties and seventies and went to the cinema, and if we look at the statistics, eighty million tickets were sold in the country in 1969-70 Reviewing in 2018, I think it reached 26 million tickets and had a strange drop. To add this audience to the cinema, we must consider a way other than the current trend.
Our point of view is that it is possible to add the family audience to the cinema, and for this purpose, in addition to paying attention to the current cinema audience, we must also consider the family in the works and products that we rate. An example of this policy can be seen in the two movies “Mahdi Situation” and “Hanas” that we were in charge of broadcasting and distributing this year.

Fars: What measures do you have to guide the audience towards these works?
Esmaili: The fact is that the most important factor is the works themselves and we are responsible for the distribution, and the production of the product is apparently not directly related to the distribution department, and these policies should be considered in the production department. The implementation process of distribution starts from the time of the end of the work, of course we announce feedback from the distribution process to the production department to consider in the production processes, but it is a fact that in a correct system everywhere in the world, it is the distribution that Intensity is effective in regulating production.
In the distribution and marketing department, we are trying to provide a complete collection for distribution; This chain starts from the company’s license and buying and selling rights of the works and continues in the cinema broadcast, advertisements related to the film, interaction with the home theater network and even paying attention to the international section of the cinematographic works to participate in foreign festivals and finally the public sector in the virtual space; We develop this chain in a balanced way so that the works that are a priority for us due to the subject matter enter the distribution stages with a higher coefficient.

Wrong payment hurts the revolution cinema

Fars: As a person who has the experience of distributing films in the art field, what suggestions do you have for concerned filmmakers to face a better box office?

Esmaili: It must be said that artists who are concerned about the Islamic Revolution usually do not have many problems in the field of content and problem-orientedness and are aware of these issues, but the point that should be paid attention to by the producers of the works is the issue of the correct payment of the cinematic work. Currently, we have works that do not have proper payments, and when they reach the stage of distribution, they are forced to distribute the work, and sometimes they harm the image of revolutionary cinema and revolutionary artists. Actually, when this image is damaged, it will be difficult to correct it.

Fars: Can’t distribution help this sector to be more visible?
Esmaili: When a movie is not made properly, excessive advertising in the distribution space has the opposite effect; This defective product has reached the audience and the audience not only rejects it, but also considers this product defect for future purchases and remembers the bad image of these movies, which will have a direct impact on the box office of the next movies in these works.

Fars: What do you know about the damage of the so-called box office movies?

Esmaili: If by box office movies you mean movies with low content and non-issue oriented, then it should be said that such movies are different from box office movies. According to our definition, a box-office movie is not necessarily bad, and it is good and helps the cinema economy, and it is even our duty to give a coefficient to the movies that were not made outside the framework of the Islamic Revolution, so that they succeed at the box office. Even if they are films that do not have topics that are contrary to our topics, but they are not our priority, however, when they have the possibility of success at the box office, they will be in the queue of our attention.
But if you mean by blockbuster movies, the works that are produced with absurd and immoral themes and without valuable central issues, then it should be said that basically why are these movies allowed to be produced? If we have a problem with the distribution of these works, the logical method is that at the beginning of granting the necessary licenses and in the related bottlenecks, they should be seriously controlled so that negative behaviors such as sanctions are not expected from us as a part of the government.
Although this is not in our field of work, it is an issue that should be raised in this regard. Of course, we are not in a position to say that these films should not be made, and the responsible institutions act according to their own discretion, and maybe if I were in a decision-making position, I would not have negatively opposed the production of these works, and instead, I would have chosen a positive method.

Fars: What kind of attitude do you have with these works as a distributor?

Esmaili: The reality is that dealing with this issue negatively will lead to worse things, and this issue should be dealt with positively. In the sense that by making great works and paying good attention to valuable subjects, we will make it happen that the audience does not welcome different works of this kind of cinema and moves towards films with the right content. Because after all, cinema is entertainment and this should be respected. Basically, our task is to create conditions for choosing the right audience, not to delete a stream!

Fars: Considering the fact that the art field itself is one of the producers of Iranian cinema; Do you make a difference between the productions of the field and other productions for the distribution of different works?
Esmaili: The Deputy Director of Distribution of the Surah Cinematic Organization connected to the art field of the Islamic Revolution considers it his duty to do his best to bring the revolutionary productions of government and private organizations and other works that have the right content, fundamental and priority issues of the Islamic Revolution to the audience, and it is important. It is not that these productions were produced in the field of art or other private and government institutions related to the atmosphere of the Islamic revolution. Our duty is to prioritize, support and strengthen this flow.

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