It is very noticeable that GMA Films have not been producing a lot of movies in the past few years. They have been involved mostly in co-productions and even these, are few and far-between.
The last film which GMA Films produced on their own was “Overtime”, which starred Richard Gutierrez and Lauren Young and which was released in 2014. It was the only film they made last year, the rest were co-productions.
For 2015, GMA Films had only co-produced one movie, and that is “My Bebe Love:#KiligPaMore”, with Octoarts Films, M-Zet Productions, APT Entertainment and MEDA Productions.
Why is this so? It is not because of lack of funds for sure, because GMA Films has a war chest enough to produce a lot of films like the rest in the industry.
It seems, the mother company GMA Network is just being prudent and streamlining its priorities.
According to a Bandera, GMA Network is concentrating on TV programming, acquisitions, and other externally produced programs. An unnamed GMA Network executive remarked, “Mahirap mag-produce ngayon ng pelikula. Ang daming lugi ngayon.” (It’s hard to produce films now. A lot of them lose money.)
The same source said that there’s also lesser headaches when they just invest money for co-productions. They leave the day-to-day management of the film making to their co-producers.
Will GMA Films change its tune if and when “My Bebe Love:#KiligPaMore” makes a killing at the Metro Manila Film Festival? If they step up their film production by next year, then we’ll have our answer.
