Cinema Developments! Boosting the film industry of Indonesia

The Lippo Group of the Riady family plans to develop 1,000 screens within five years across the country, under its Cinemaxx brand. They will first focus on second and third tier cities before looking into major metropolises including Jakarta.

The large firm, with interests in real estate, media, retail, healthcare and hospitality, is in good place to develop Indonesia’s exhibition infrastructure, owning shopping malls with political links essential for the job.

During recent months, deals have been signed with technology providers including Barco, Dolby Atmos, GDC and Masterimage 3D, this is as well as the firm also developing its own giant screen brand, MegaMaxx. The CEO of Cinemaxx announced at the recent CinemaCon of goals to offer state-of-the-art technology with first-class amenities.

Cinemaxx also aims to become a leading distributor of Indonesia. This is with the new head of film acquisition and distribution, having attended Cannes to meet with major sales agents.

Indonesia’s Blitzmegaplex is also currently prepared for development, following the recent IPO of the exhibitor’s parent company, PT Graha Layar Prima. Korean CJ CGV, now is a major shareholder of Blitz, subsequent it’s listing on the Jakarta stock exchange. It intends to contribute its cinema management expertise to the company’s expansion.

During the build up to the IPO, Blitzmegaplex revealed plans to use the funds to develop 15 cinemas across three years, totalling $35million. Presently, it has 11 sites and ideas to open two more within the next year before increasing rapid rollout.

Indonesia houses the world’s fourth largest population of 253million individuals. However, it offers approximately 800 screens, with a majority under Cinema 21, who have delighted from a monopoly in exhibition and distribution since the Suharto era.

Indonesia’s yearly box office is only approximately $250million, a result of the country being under-screened – this is the same size as Singapore housing a population of 5.5million.

Blitzmegaplex participated Indonesian exhibition during 2006. However, it struggled to develop swiftly and occasionally proved a challenge to acquire access to products of the monopolised distribution sector. Cinema 21, subsidiary of Omega, is responsible for all US studio films, receiving both foreign and local films to distribute.

However, the market has potential to grow swiftly if competition is able to flourish - Indonesia has a growing middle class with disposable income as well as a fresh, social media-savvy cinema audience. The country also quarters a flourishing local film industry, producing approximately 100 films each year and having recently presented overseas productions including ‘The Philosophers’ and ‘Java Heat’.

The majority of Indonesian movies are comedies, horrors or Islamic-themed romances, restricted in export potential. However, filmmakers including Gareth Huw Evans, with ‘The Raid’ and its sequels, plus the Mo Brothers who recently directed ‘Killers’ as an Indonesia-Japan co-production, are owed to for placing Indonesian genre filmmaking on the map.

Following its shift into Vietnamese and Chinese language production, CJ CGV’s sister company, CJ Entertainment, also plans to produce Bahasa Indonesian language movies. The company is presently developing around seven or eight Bahasa new titles, planning to release the first few within the next year.

CJ Entertainment followed a similar course in Vietnam, purchasing local exhibitor, Megastar Media during 2011 and preparing to release its first Vietnamese production, ‘Let Hoi Decide’, co-produced with Chanh Phuong Films. Directed by Charlie Nguyen (‘The Rebel’), the comedy stars local comedian, Thai Hoa.

Indonesian producers also has the potential to receive a boost from the recently established Indonesian Film Council, which is mounting a three year strategic plan to evolve the local film industry. However, the new body presently has limited funding in the lead up to the Indonesian presidential elections in July.

The Equator Film Expo (EFX), a new film festival concentrating on co-production, is to be launched in Indonesia next year. This will allow industry professionals to visit the country immediately following Filmart of Hong Kong.