Situational analysis of today’s Iranian cinema from the point of view of sales and release
Fars News Agency-Cinema Group: These days, the cinema is experiencing one of the busiest screening packages in the last few years, it can be said that the audience has reconciled with the cinema and the shadow that Corona cast on the seventh art is fading, but there is definitely still a long distance between the current conditions and the ideals of cinema. . In this report, we will try to take a look at what is happening in the country’s cinema by rereading the sales status of currently released works and experts’ opinions about the sales status.
Mustafa Mahmoudi, a cultural activist in the field of cinema, said about the sales statistics of cinemas across the country and the audience’s reception of this cultural arena: “The audience’s good reception of movies is just a joke, and based on the statistics announced by the Samfa system, in general, in the three months In the first year, 5 million and 230 thousand people have seen the films released on the screens of cinemas across the country; That means, on average, 1 million and 700 thousand people welcomed the films on the screen every month, which is not significant at all.”
Although the summer release has brought a fresh and diverse combination of movies to the silver screen, the shadow of one movie from the Nowruz release basket of cinemas is still weighing on its head, “Fossil”, which is the leader of the box office these days and has sold more than 188 billion tomans so far. has done; something that is not normal in the opinion of some cinematographers.
Hossein Farahbakhsh, an old and experienced producer of Iranian cinema, who is currently screening the film “City of Hurt”, criticized the unequal conditions of the screening in a radio interview and said: “Strange events are happening, which are exemplified in the 40 I have not seen the last year of my activity and what we are witnessing is a kind of screening engineering in favor of a special film that was shown on Eid without a serious competitor and today after three months of screening and with the addition of significant films that were added since last week, it is still like It sells on the first day.”
Other films on the cinema screen are not in bad condition either, although comedies are still in the lead.
In another part of his interview, Mahmoudi said, referring to the movie theater: “If we look at the sale of movies, we see that the ownership of Iranian cinema is still in the sale of movie theaters. It should be noted that I have nothing to do with the quality of the works. , because this is a matter of separation; But I want to say that the body cinema still sells commercial comedy films and can take over the largest number of cinemas, which is not at all in favor of the screening; This is because if an audience’s distress moves to one side or another, it cannot be changed. After all, even if this justice is observed in the screen, the audience also observes some issues.”
* A look at the statistics of cinema sales in the last month
From the total number of films that are being shown on the cinema screen, 7 new films have started their screening in cinemas since June 17; A combination that includes serious non-comedy works.
*fossil
“Fossil” is still the highest-grossing film in the cinema, it has occupied the first place in sales since June 17 (the time of the summer package release) until now; This movie currently has 514 thousand 903 viewers in 7 thousand 899 screenings and has sold nearly 22 billion tomans in total. This means that Fossil had an average of 65 audiences per session.
Shahpour Azimi; The critic, translator and lecturer, in response to the question of what components are the sales equations based on in Iranian cinema, emphasizes: “Basically, no components!” In the cinema, we have a very good movie that doesn’t sell at all, on the other hand, we have a very bad movie that sells well. The time of production, social events before and after the screening of a film and other components that may be specific to our society affect sales.
In an interview with Fars reporter, Mustafa Ghasemian said about box office movies: “Box office movies are usually not special films in terms of structure and content, and they do not have significant drama. In cinema outside of Iran, this is similar to Iranian cinema. For example, some of the works of the Marvel series, such as “The Avengers”, are not comparable to the good works of their country’s cinema, such as the works of Scorsese, but it must be known that for a good film to exist, there must first be a cinema industry.
This film critic further stated: “Fossil” is at best an average movie in terms of quality, it does not have a special drama, it does not have a good characterization, and the main actor did not even have a chance to give a good performance. It is not a very complicated role, and of course, in such a situation, there is no special acting in the film.”
*City of no laws
Karim Amini is competing with his own film these days, City of Hurt is the second film directed by him that is being screened in theaters.
“City of Hurt” has sold 263 thousand 264 tickets and managed to experience 11 billion sales in 6 thousand 367 screenings, this movie has the second rank among the movies currently being released.
Farahbakhsh, the producer of this film, said in relation to the unequal conditions of the release of his film: “I saw a comment on the website of one of the followers of the dreaded gang of the sixties saying that you should not watch Shahr Hurt because it says ugly things and instead watch Fossil, which is another strange thing. A set that I have never seen before and it seems that it is the same screen engineering that I said about, otherwise we would have seen people commenting that a certain movie is nonsense or awful or on the contrary it is wonderful! must see! And… but not seeing a certain movie and watching another movie instead is a strange event that must be reacted to.”
*Leather coat
“Leather Jacket” is the best-selling non-comedy film currently being released, a film directed by Hossein Mirzamohammadi, which has drawn 75,296 viewers to the cinema since its release.
Cinema critic Kamal Pourkaveh said about this film: “The film is hit from exactly the places that should naturally be its strength. It seems that our young filmmaker’s trust and confidence in an actor like Javad Ezzati did not lead to the desired result here, and in the absence of a precise text and intelligent characterization, it has become the Achilles heel of the film.
If Javad Ezzati succeeds in bringing the audience with him in the movie “Loser Man”, it was because of the script and text that, with a correct understanding of how to draw a hero, gave him certain behavioral and speech characteristics that made the character of a lonely and introverted policeman. He showed intelligence and common sense. A decisive and intelligent policeman who is even willing to drive his car and his child to the point of destruction in order to pursue the subject in question, and he is so accurate and meticulous that despite his personal troubles, he keeps an eye on everything and reaches a worthy analysis of the situation. »
* interest
“Maslahat” is in the fourth place among the best-selling works of cinema, a film with many margins that has received different positive and negative opinions; this film attracted 57 thousand 493 audiences and sold 57 thousand 493 audiences during its release in 2822 screenings. It has experienced nearly 2.5 billion.
The official synopsis of the movie Expediency, which has a political and sarcastic story, is as follows; In the early 1960s, after the revolution, a new political system was established. At this time, the political difference between one of the influential figures of the system and his son, puts them in front of each other and causes a difficult balance between the family bond and the country’s political expediency…
Some critics have said in relation to this film: “We cannot ignore the fact that when dealing with a film like Expediency, we are dealing with a political work anyway, and for this reason, part of the reactions to the film are related to its political orientation and ideology. . But the point here is that Expediency is a controversial and engaging film for audiences with different political thoughts and tendencies, because instead of propaganda, it maneuvers on a political discourse.
* People’s bride
Bride of the People is the fifth movie on the schedule of cinemas. This movie has brought 55 thousand 406 viewers to cinemas in 2 thousand 479 screenings, 2 billion and 300 million Tomans sales have been recorded for this movie during its release.
In relation to the story of this film, it should be said: “Imagine that a young boy and girl, out of unemployment and shamelessness, accidentally discover that they can go to strangers’ weddings and, in addition to an elaborate reception, dance and have a good time.” It can be a one-liner and the general idea of the film, but if the subject of the film is limited to this single idea, it is undoubtedly not tolerable for more than half an hour. So, a second idea is needed to launch the story in the second phase, which we call a turning point in the scriptwriting rules.”
* The rest of the works
After these works, there are 3 other movies that will be released this summer, namely “Night Watchman”, “Imagination” and “White Collar”. These movies have the 8th, 9th and 12th ranks in the best selling works of this month.
“Night Watchman” had 14 thousand 819 viewers and sold more than 600 million Tomans, in total 1 and 173 screenings were available for this film.
Majid Eslami said about “Negheban Shab”: “Mirkarimi’s film is practically not similar to any film, neither the so-called social realist films nor his previous films. A kind of determination can be seen in the formation of this film, which is visible in the choice of its actors, such as the main character who has an amazing innocence and the girl who is completely like the actors and of course the old man. In the film’s strategy, which does not want to be too dramatic and does not want to make a business out of poverty like many others, it is not afraid of being lyrical in the heart of realism and focuses on details as much as possible. This is the peak of Mirkarimi’s skill and maturity in dealing with very common and obvious issues, and the good thing is that he does not shy away from experimenting. He learns from his previous films; But it does not repeat itself. A strange combination of the intimacy of “child and soldier”, the courage of “as simple as this” and the lyrics of “a sugar cube”.
“Imagination” has had 10 thousand 833 audience in 752 screenings and “White Collar” has brought only 4 thousand 166 audience to cinemas in 315 screenings despite being a comedy genre.
*Conclusion
In total, since the start of the release of new movies in the summer release package, 1 million and 104 thousand people have gone to the cinema in 30 thousand and 835 screenings and have sold a total of 47 billion Tomans.
It seems that the cinema of the country is experiencing a better situation than in the last few years, the sales of films have increased proportionally and more audiences are watching movies in each screening, but despite all these conditions, there are still criticisms of the atmosphere of the country’s cinemas. is entered
Looking at the movies and their sales statistics, it draws attention to one point, the number of screenings available to each movie is very different compared to other works, for example, the movie “Fossil” which has been on the cinema screens since March of last year and has been in theaters for several months. has experienced the screening, it should have a limited number of screenings compared to the newly released films, it still has the most screenings.
For example, Mirkarimi, the director of the movie “Night Watchman”, complained about the low-quality screenings of his movie in cinemas. On the other hand, Hossein Farahbakhsh, the producer of the movie “Shahr Hurt”, which is currently being screened, criticized the unequal conditions of the screen and called the screen engineering in favor of a particular film.
It seems that now that the country’s cinema is returning to the favorable state of the past with the obvious efforts of the cinema organization, more attention should be paid to the issue of justice in the cinema. On the other hand, this influential institution should pay special attention to improving the taste of citizens and pay more attention to quality works in its screening baskets. It is true that at this time it was necessary to bring back the prosperity to the country’s cinemas by giving space to comic works, but one should not forget the diverse and aesthetic field of cinema. Repetition of superficial comedy films can leave cultural damages in the long run. Humorous films should improve their structural quality so that they can overcome the situation of being out of date and have a longer shelf life. Of course, films with thought do not mean boring works that do not pay much attention to “entertainment” and fun. The country needs social vitality more than ever and for this, cinema can be one of the main versions.
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