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Alaa and Heneidi are not alone anymore...
By Karim Darwich
Going head to head
Moviegoers have been inundated with more choices than ever this summer. In fact, this season's crop of new movies has already exceeded the number of movies that used to be released in an entire year just a decade or so ago, when everybody was complaining of a major crisis in Egyptian cinema.
With bigger budgets, and more movie theaters, it's a whole different world out there now, and one of the biggest factors is the audience. Egyptian youth have embraced mall culture, with its multiplexes, more than ever before, and that means they've become a major force in the cinema equation. They are the makers of the market, and most of the films out on the big screen have been tailored to their whims and desires.
Then again, in that respect, they are hardly alone.
These days there are also many more avenues for movie producers to resell their properties into once they've made them. Foreign distribution is at an all-time high, and there are more Arabic satellite channels opening up every day, desperate for good content . It's no longer straight from the movie theater to video anymore, as industry big-wigs also try to open up distribution channels via the internet, DVDs and CD-ROMS.
Much of this activity has been driven by consolidating forces like the new giant multi-media company aiming to become the Middle East's Viacom or Time Warner. Investment banking powerhouse EFG-Hermes's "Al-Arabia" media company has been buying up both the full rights to as many films as it can, as well as the movie theaters where it will then show those properties. This summer it has already released five films, including this week's Ga'ana Al-Bayan Al-Tali (This Just In), starring Mohamed Heneidi.
Which brings us back to our central premise. For the past few years, summer has been characterized by the release of big summer films by the two men who have become Egypt's biggest movie stars, Alaa Walieddin and Mohamed Heneidi. It had become a given that the summer box office was to be divided up amongst these two silver screen giants, with everyone else who dared to enter the fray merely left to pick up the crumbs.
Not any more.
For one thing, neither of the two stars' films were even released this summer till late July/early August, well past prime summer time movie-going. And then, to make matters even more confusing, Al-Arabia released Heneidi's film just a week after Oscar released Alaa's ouevre.
Oscar is the company trying hard to keep up with Al-Arabia. This summer it hasn't faired too poorly. It increased the number of cinemas it owns, as well as released two films that did fairly well. Ahmed Zaki's Ayam Al-Sadat has already brought in some LE10 million, and Ahmed El-Sakka's Africano has done some LE6 million worth of business.
Which means the post Heneidi and Alaa crumbs are no longer just crumbs any more.
The two big guys, meanwhile, are now busy battling it out. Ibn Ezz made a whopping LE540,000 in its first weekend, and Ga'ana Al-Bayan Al-Tali is also sure to make a bunch.
Heneidi and Alaa used to be best friends and co-stars, a much-loved Laurel and Hardy duo for modern Egyptian cinema, but their future may now rest less on what moviegoers really want, then on how the big players behind the scenes in the movie industry deal with the tenuous move from small scale production and distribution to large-scale studio systems with ownership of both production lines and distribution channels.
All the parties involved have to be clear about one thing, however: that at this stage, what they're doing should be to the benefit of Egyptian cinema as a whole, rather than to one or another party only.
After all, the movement into the big time -- a Hollywood-inspired renaissance that Egyptian cinema desperately needs -- is still in its formulation stages. Some of the basic elements may have been put into place: better hype, better trailers, better marketing, etc -- but the haphazard release dates of many of the movies this summer make it clear that not all the details have been worked out. And that there is below-the-belt activity going on.
Some industry insiders want official agencies to come on board and help determine whether or not companies like Al-Arabia are monopolizing the industry.
That may be a good idea. But it might be even wiser for the big boys to keep in mind that for now, the audience may be happy with more choices, but after a while, if things remain haphazard, that happiness might turn into confusion.
And that wouldn't be good for anybody.
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