Fewer movies, fewer halls

The number movies released in the first quarter of the year (January to April) lags way behind that of the same period in 2017.

Between 1 January and 21 April last year, as many as 24 movies were released, while the same period this year have only seen 15 films.

Industry insiders say many of the producers have stopped investing in films due to recurring losses.

However, some argue that the market still has a demand for a good story, even if it is a big budget one.

Jazz Multimedia chairman Abdul Aziz blamed it on 'bad business', saying that many of the cinema halls are not holding shows regularly. He observed that a revised policy for joint venture films would enable many for making big budget movies, which would draw viewers to the halls and bringing home the necessary profits for the producers and the hall owners.

Producer Kamal Mohammad Kibria owned three cinema halls in Sherpur. Among these, only one is running in a limping condition while the two had already been closed for big losses. Kamal no longer wants to run this one too, because of continuous loss.

"Within a week, I will declare the closure and start the task of breaking the building down," he said. Kamal ran the hall only because it was an ancestral business, but 'it has incurred more loss this year than the previous ones'.

Members of the Bangladesh Chalachitra Prodorshok Samity (Bangladesh Film Distributors' Association) said 25 cinema halls are not running this year despite being in operation in the past year.