The Indonesian Film Industry Will Be More Attractive in 2024

The Indonesian film industry has the potential to attract up to 60 million viewers by 2024.

The following article was translated using both Microsoft Azure Open AI and Google Translation AI. The original article can be found in Industri Film Indonesia Akan Makin Atraktif pada 2024

KOMPAS/SEKAR GANDHAWANGI

Actresses Prilly Latuconsina (right) and Sha Ine Febriyanti (center) attend a limited screening of the film Budi Pekerti for journalists at Plaza Senayan, Jakarta, Monday (30/10/2023). This film was first screened in early September 2023 at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) which took place in Toronto, Canada. After being screened in several cities and countries, the film by director and screenwriter Wregas Bhanuteja will be shown in Indonesian cinemas starting November 2 2023. To date, Budi Pekerti has received 17 nominations at the Indonesian Film Festival ( FFI) 2023.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The Indonesian film industry is gradually recovering after the Covid-19 pandemic. After successfully attracting 55 million viewers in 2023, the film industry is expected to attract more and more Indonesian film lovers in 2024. In order to achieve maximum success, a number of challenges must be overcome.

Analyst and film researcher, Hikmat Darmawan, evaluates the Indonesian film industry's performance recovery after the Covid-19 pandemic as quite good. This is not only supported by strong films, such as Pengabdi Setan 2: Communion and KKN in Desa Penari, but also the return of cinema audiences.

"From year to year, (I) always assume that our potential market is 80 million cinema audiences. "We can't go there yet," he said when contacted in Jakarta, Tuesday (6/2/2024).

Also read: In 2023, Indonesian Film Viewers Targeted to Break New Records

This year, Hikmat estimates that the domestic film industry could attract 50-60 million moviegoers. However, he cannot confirm whether the number can grow even more, due to the inadequate capacity of cinemas in the country.

Quoting data from the Indonesian Film Body, the national film industry managed to attract 51.2 million viewers in 2019. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of viewers plummeted to 19 million in 2020. A year later, the figure dropped even further to 4.5 million viewers. It wasn't until 2022 that the film industry began to revive, successfully attracting more than 24 million viewers.

ARSIP KEMENPAREKRAF

Deputy of Strategic Policy Affairs at the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, Dessy Ruhati, explained the achievement of Indonesia's film industry in 2023 at a weekly press conference in Jakarta on Monday (5/2/2024). She stated that there were 55 million moviegoers in Indonesia throughout last year.

Positive sentiment

Deputy for Strategic Policy at the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, Dessy Ruhati, said that at least 55 million cinema audiences had been reached by 2023. Achievement This is considered to provide positive sentiment for investors in the capital market to increase the value of the tourism and creative economy sub-sectors.

"This is also a record for 20 Indonesian film titles that have reached a record of 1 million viewers per film. The attraction of this subsector is very interesting. We hope that the workforce in animation, film, and video continue to grow," said Dessy.

Popular film genres last year still revolved around horror, melodrama, and comedy. However, the genre is expected to expand by 2024.

Also read: The Rise of the Indonesian Film World from the Pandemic

"The genres that are still widely liked in Indonesia are genres that are still related to the origin of Indonesian people, such as horror. There are also comedy and drama genres. So, the diversity of film genres in 2023 will continue, including the action genre in 2024," said DJ Director of PT Produksi Film Negara (Persero) or PFN, Dwi Heriyanto.

He projects that if Indonesian cinema can attract up to 60 million viewers in 2024, money will flow rapidly. If the price per ticket is IDR 40,000 per person, then the turnover throughout the year will reach IDR 2.4 trillion. This figure does not include revenue from over the top (OTT) media channels, internet-based services that act as content distributors.

Kompas

The filming atmosphere of the Story of Kale movie, which will be screened on Bioskoponline.com in October 2020. ARCHIVE VISINEMA 25-09-2020.

Food and drink sales

In one film production, it takes a cost ranging from IDR 5 billion to IDR 20 billion. Therefore, the profit of each film varies, depending on the production cost and the number of viewers.

"In my opinion, if you want to develop film distribution channels in that area, it is still very open because there are no cinemas yet," said Dwi.

Hikmat and Dwi also stated that the support for the film industry business is not solely from ticket sales. In fact, a large portion of cinema revenue comes from the sales of food and drinks. Although not every viewer purchases food and drink when watching, customers are willing to spend multiple times the price of the ticket.

The economic value generated from such consumption can even reach up to 4 times the ticket price.

The economic value generated from such consumption can even reach 4 times the ticket price. This is because cinemas in Indonesia are considered more luxurious than cinemas in other countries. This could potentially be a business opportunity that can be developed.

Meanwhile, the distribution of Indonesian films is no longer limited to domestic consumption. Regional markets have started to show interest in promoting works of national filmmakers.

KOMPAS/WAWAN H PRABOWO

The Kick-Off for the Europalia Arts Festival Indonesia took place as local comic artists Sheila Rooswita (left) and Hikmat Darmawan discussed their upcoming participation in the festival, which will be held in Brussels, Belgium from October 10th, 2017 to January 21st, 2018. The festival will feature 486 artists and 226 programs from Indonesia and will run for 104 days. The Kick-Off event was held at the Galeri Indonesia Kaya, Grand Indonesia, Jakarta on Tuesday (10/3). Kompas/Wawan H Prabowo (WAK) 10-03-2017

Market expansion

Hikmat stated that the regional market is already very interested in Indonesian films. The market in Southeast Asia, especially in Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam, has even expanded to Turkey and Azerbaijan, showing interest in Indonesian films.

"From the quantity and quality of production, Indonesia has a lot (of films). Therefore, if Southeast Asian countries sell to Turkey or Azerbaijan, Indonesian films will definitely be among those brought along," he said.

Behind the rapidly developing film industry in the homeland, there are several fundamental problems that have not yet been solved. However, if a solution is found, then the potential for the development of this industry will be further enhanced.

Also read: Long Messages from Short Films

Hikmat stated that the potential audience for movies in Indonesia could reach 80 million people assuming the proportion of population since 2010. However, that potential has not been fully utilized due to the uneven distribution of movie theaters in Indonesia. There is also an imbalance in the ratio of screens to population. The capacity for films and audiences is still limited.

The Indonesian film market also still tends to be uniform, not yet diverse. In fact, there are other film markets, such as arthouse films which focus on festival films and classic films which can also be shown in domestic cinemas.

However, both types of films have not received sufficient proportion in cinemas due to the routine of showing the latest films. Yet, this is already common practice in other countries such as the United Kingdom.

Kompas

Teenagers attended a screening of a film at the Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival (JAFF) event at the Empire XXI cinema in Yogyakarta on Thursday (2/12/2021). The festival was held both offline and online this year and featured 115 films from 15 Asia Pacific countries. Kompas/Fergananta Indra Riatmoko (DRA) 02-12-2021.

Illegal levies

Indonesia does not have a distribution channel yet. As a result, film producers not only think about the content of their films, but also about marketing and distribution. Ideally, this should be done separately by other parties.

Dwi said something similar. Filmmakers are burdened with too many tasks. Not to mention when they have to deal with difficult permits at the shooting location. “There are a lot of thugs, it's very difficult. Prices are not standard, making it difficult for film makers," he said.

Also read: The Bloom of Asia Pacific Films

Dwi hopes that the government needs to pay more attention and offer more support to the Indonesian film industry. Subsidies and incentives for film production would be very helpful, as would the development of film infrastructure.

In addition, Dwi added that clear and straightforward regulations are needed. Several foreign film distributors are interested in marketing their products in Indonesia, but do not know which path to take.

Meanwhile, other countries have implemented policies that facilitate a one-stop management system. As a result, they know where to start exploring cooperation with other countries.