The ₱1-billion gross of the 2023 Metro Manila Film Festival led many in the ailing film industry to hope that audiences would start to patronise Filipino films again, and not just go to the cinema when there’s a blockbuster or a Marvel movie on. But it took until August of last year for another big hit to come. Audiences don’t really think Filipino films are good enough to spend their money on, as evidenced by debates on social media. But champions are still around, supporting local cinema in publications, in Letterboxd reviews, or in social media posts.
As the last film festival held every year, it feels right to use the Metro Manila Film Festival as a barometer to indicate the changes or trends in Philippine cinema. The overall gross of the 2023 edition – over ₱1 billion in just five days – will be the phantom that looms over succeeding festivals to come. This year, the festival’s 50th, is ₱200 million short, grossing up to ₱800 million as of January 2025. The result is still encouraging but a little surprising, given the return of the festival’s two biggest moneymakers: comedians Vice Ganda, and Vic Sotto, who both carry the weight of being referred to as “Box Office Stars,” meaning their billing alone ensures box office success. Did they underperform because they’re in films that didn’t call for their usual funny selves? Or is it something else?
Perhaps the circumstances hark back to when Charlie Chaplin starred in Monsieur Verdoux, a 1947 black comedy that diverged from his iconic Little Tramp character. The film wasn’t a hit, and Chaplin, reflecting on the film’s poor commercial performance, said, “I lost money on that one. The people who came to see me came to see the funny man. They were shocked. They couldn’t adjust. They wanted to know where the big shoes are.” Though And the Breadwinner Is… and The Kingdom were by no means commercial failures, they are headlined by comedians in more serious roles. And the Breadwinner Is… earned ₱460 million (€7.3 million), half of the overall MMFF 2024 earnings (around ₱800 million, or €12.8 million) but didn’t surpass the ₱1 billion gross of last year’s MMFF top earner, the Catholic family drama Rewind.
And the Breadwinner Is… is a mix of laugh-out-loud comedy and earnest family drama, led by a beloved comedy actor (Vice Ganda) who’s practically in every Filipino home daily through a noontime variety show, and centers on a topic that’s familiar to every Filipino: the hard life of making ends meet. The film was bolstered by great reviews, hailing Vice Ganda’s performance as a career high. “Vice Ganda is just phenomenal, exuding emotion that exceeds personal struggle. She’s representing the pain of every person ever burdened with being a sole breadwinner, and she knocks it out of the park,” according to film critic Philbert Dy.
The Kingdom, on the other hand, lands Sotto far away from his usual comedic territory. The actor is known for his portrayal of a magical everyman (as in his Enteng Kabisote films) or an authoritative yet hilarious father figure (as in Jack Em Popoy: The Puliscredibles and My Little Bossings, both box office hits) and in The Kingdom, we see him glumly explore the possibility of a Philippines that was never colonised by Western powers. Sotto plays the widowed king Lakan Makisig Nandula, who is set to determine his successor among his three children. The film posits an alternative history of the Philippines that is not far from its current state, riddled with corruption, inequality, and political intrigue.
The Kingdom is noted for its scope and ambition, though its gamble doesn’t exactly deliver a satisfying payoff. Shaky VFX and soap-operatic plot points make it seem like its concept is worth exploring more in a primetime TV show rather than a 133-minute movie. But Sotto’s emotional performance isn’t new. He’s been able to exercise his dramatic chops in the Lenten-season drama specials of the variety show Eat Bulaga but The Kingdom gives him a large enough cinematic canvas to showcase his ability to carry a film without resorting to wisecracks. Its inclusion in the MMFF is already a risk in itself, as the festival has always been a commercial-first platform for big stars who want to rake in some last-minute box office earnings.
Audiences seem to have an affinity for Sotto’s dramatic wager, with The Kingdom being the third highest-grossing film of the 2025 MMFF, though its exact gross is not disclosed. The second highest-earning film is the festival’s Best Picture winner, Green Bones, which ended its run at around ₱133.7 million (€2.1 million) and stayed in a few cinemas past the festival date. The prison drama, co-written by veteran screenwriter Ricky Lee, is buoyed by a gripping performance by Dennis Trillo, as a convict who may or may not be wrongly accused of a crime. Green Bones was the most awarded film of the festival, with Trillo winning Best Actor and Lee winning Best Screenplay. The Kingdom took home five awards including Second Best Picture and Best Direction.
Film Development Council of the Philippines chairman Jose Javier Reyes was optimistic about the festival and remarked that the 10 films in the program were selected for their quality rather than commercial viability, as is the tradition in the MMFF.
In a blog post, he said, “This is one Metro Manila Film Fest where commercialism is not a shameless display of reductive or even pandering movies meant to cater to the most superficial level of human intelligence. Instead, some of these movies are well thought-out, all are well produced but most of all, the 10 films want to bring back the audiences to the moviehouses where their narratives can be savored properly as a community experience.”
Some of the stronger films in the festival were Dan Villegas’ Uninvited, a chilling thriller about a mother consumed by revenge with superstar Vilma Santos in the role, and Pepe Diokno’s Isang Himala (“A Miracle”), a musical adaptation of Ishmael Bernal’s 1982 classic Himala. Isang Himala came last in the box office rankings and screened in a low number of theatres. It didn’t stand a fighting chance against crowd-pleasers and even standard horror fare (Espantaho and Strange Frequencies: Taiwan Killer Hospital, a remake of the South Korean found footage horror Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum). The MMFF is a two-week showcase of films that starts on Christmas Day and cinemas are not allowed to screen foreign films (except for specialty cinemas such as IMAX theaters). These films didn’t compete with Wicked or Mufasa: The Lion King.
Inaccessibility and the death of the mass audience
It wasn’t until August that the industry saw larger crowds going back to the cinemas with the release of Un/Happy for You. The success of Un/Happy for You, a back-to-basics romantic drama led by the love team of Joshua Garcia and Julia Barretto, earned ₱450 million (€7.2 million) and gave the industry a boost. Audiences rode over this tide of hope until the biggest whale came in November with the romantic drama, Hello, Love, Again, which now stands as the highest-grossing Filipino film of all time. The film earned a whopping ₱1.6 billion (€25.7 million) – almost as close as Avengers: Endgame (₱1.7 billion or €27 million). The film is a sequel to the 2019 hit Hello, Love, Goodbye and brings together two of the biggest stars in the Philippines, Kathryn Bernardo and Alden Richards, and garnered mixed reviews (Letterboxd reviews sit a 2.8/5 average) due to a burdened story but exceptional lead performances.
Un/Happy For You and Hello, Love, Goodbye prove that established love teams – consistent on-screen romantic pairings – still guarantee great returns. Still, they are only two of the few successful films among the 2024 releases (less than 200 films as per a rough estimate).
In a Senate hearing regarding the budgets of the government agencies Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) – the country’s censorship arm – and the FDCP, Reyes remarked, “Can you imagine [...], from January, the next big hit is August! All the months in between, flop lahat [ng films] (the films are all flop).”
One of the biggest stumbling blocks of the industry is still the high price of tickets. Costing around ₱350-500 (€5-8), tickets have become more and more exorbitant. MMFF is geared as a family-friendly festival, which means a family of five would have to spend over ₱1750 plus snacks and transportation costs. Compare that to streaming platform plans which can go as low as ₱149 (€2.4) for a monthly mobile-only plan or ₱249 (€4) for a basic plan which you have a huge library of films and Hollywood blockbusters and Korean dramas to choose from. Plus, the window between a theatrical release to a streaming release has shrunk down to 45 days – even fewer for foreign releases so there is a portion of audiences who would rather wait for films to stream. The addition of Max in the Philippine streaming market in November set a competitive introductory price for their plans.
The high ticket prices, as Reyes said in the Senate hearing, have effectively reduced cinema-going as a middle-class activity. The mass audience would rather stay at home and spend their money on essentials.
“We have lost completely the D and E markets who used to watch Philippine movies. We only have now the B and C1 markets watching movies… Philippine cinema patronage is a middle-class activity. Nawala na po ‘yung masa (The masses no longer watch),” said Reyes.
In a report on ticket prices by Isagani de Castro Jr. of Rappler, Reyes pointed out that when a cinema chain reduced its ticket prices for a certain promo, the audience came in droves. In the same report, Reyes said that the FDCP has met with cinema owners regarding ticket prices but “they’ve explained they are unable to lower the prices due to high cost of power – cinemas being large and air-conditioned – and maintenance costs.”
The same report has also pointed out how the mall chain SM has taken to programming exclusive films in their cinemas, as in the case of Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle and the runaway success, How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies, which is now billed as the highest-grossing Thai film in the country, though SM did not disclose the earnings. The Thai film resonated with Filipino audiences due to its family-centric story and a cleverly rendered character study that isn’t far from many beloved Filipino melodramas. The film stayed in cinemas for over four weeks and was bolstered by a viral marketing ploy that involved giving away tissues at the theater entrances. Tickets for the film were sold for ₱270, lower than the usual ticket price.
Meanwhile, Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle also stayed for at least three weeks in SM cinemas, as Rappler reported. The release capitalised on the anime’s popularity as well as the fact that volleyball has captured a large audience in the Philippines recently, almost as big as basketball.
The great debate
Outside the consistent release schedule of the erotic film platform Vivamax, which hit 13 million subscribers in 2024, and independent film festival programming, commercial films are slowly trickling into cinemas. Local films have seen more success in streaming platforms, such as Netflix, where Netflix original films such as the drama Lolo and the Kid and the zombie film Outside made it to the Top 10 list of Netflix movies and took advantage of the online-first model. Film festivals continue to boast great attendance, especially from younger audiences who are eager to know what else is out there, but streaming effectively amplifies a film’s presence and awareness.
For example, the election-centric dark comedy Balota (“Ballot”) premiered at the 2024 Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival in August and was released in commercial cinemas in October. It was one of the top two performing films at Cinemalaya in terms of ticket sales but its release on Netflix in January 2025, a few weeks before the start of the campaign season of the 2025 midterm elections, saw more viral marketing, memes, and posts from viewers due to its timely topic. The expletive-laden film stars Marian Rivera (co-lead of the billion-peso earner Rewind) as a feisty teacher who volunteers to protect a ballot box at all counts. It stayed in theatres for a month and reportedly earned ₱40 million (€638,206).
Another Cinemalaya top earner in 2024 was Gulay Lang, Manong (“No More Than Veggies”), a biting romp involving a farmer who is desperate to rescue his grandson from a drug cartel involving powerful police officers and politicians. The film won the festival’s audience award but has never been released outside of the festival.
Two of the most acclaimed films of the year tackled heavy socio-political issues: Tumandok by Richard Jeroui Salvadico and Arlie Sweet Sumagaysay, and the documentary Alipato at Muog (a.k.a. Flying Embers and a Fortress). Tumandok shows the struggles of an indigenous community in Iloilo (who are also the actors of the film) and the fight for their ancestral domain. It was awarded the Best Film in Cinemalaya and the Best Film of 2024 by the Society of Filipino Film Reviewers.
Alipato at Muog is a harrowing documentary made by JL Burgos, whose activist brother Jonas has been forcibly disappeared by suspected military personnel since 2007. Alipato at Muog joins a list of 2024 Filipino documentaries that have made waves due to their subjects, such as Lost Sabungeros, about a group of missing cockfighters and their family’s continued plea for their surfacing; and And So It Begins, chronicling the candidacy of former Vice President Leni Robredo during the 2022 elections. It was selected as the Philippines’ entry to the 97th Academy Awards. It didn’t make the long list.
Filipino film lovers should also look for triumphs elsewhere: the strong reception of Kani Releasing and Carlotta Films’ restoration of the Lino Brocka drama Bona, which premiered in the Cannes Classics section; “When the Apocalypse Is Over: New Independent Philippine Cinema” on the Criterion Channel, programmed by Aaron Hunt, and highlighting filmmaking techniques and interesting visions such as Cleaners and Bold Eagle; the continuing co-productions between Southeast Asian countries and other regional institutions, resulting in a crop of groundbreaking films, such as the Vietnam-disowned Viet and Nam, which is now referred to as a Filipino film since its producers, Epicmedia, are Filipinos; the 4K restoration of another Brocka film, Jaguar, premiering at the 16th Lumiere Film Festival; the comeback of Sinag Maynila, which included 10 short films, seven documentaries, and seven full-length features; the addition of VMX Film Festival by Vivamax in the growing lineup of fests; the continued presence of Filipino films at Cannes (notably the shorts from Directors Factory Philippines), Berlin, Venice, Sundance, Locarno, Toronto, Tokyo, and Tallinn; and the triumph of QCinema International Film festival as a growing hub for films and co-production projects around the region.
The fiercest defenders of Filipino films are just around, drowning in comments sections that say “Filipino films suck,” probably from Filipinos themselves. This became more apparent when the Filipino American YouTube channel One Media released a video titled “Why is the Philippines still making bad films?” The 13-minute long video drew flak for its hasty generalisations, summing up the film industry with just a handful of films, tearing down comedies for their “baduy” (uncool) humor, and our alleged “fixation” on romantic comedies. The video overlooked the movements happening on the ground and the fact that Filipino filmmakers have tirelessly worked to keep the industry afloat, not just for local audiences, but for the international market as well. After the fiery discourse surrounding the video’s points, the channel renamed it “How Philippine Films Are Evolving” and apologized for “any inference that the Filipino diaspora (namely a Western audience) is the solution or any comparison to other industries.”
It might be up to the industry to figure out how to increase enthusiasm and attendance in the theatres, but there will always be Filipinos who will watch local films, not because they have to, but because they love to.
Don Jaucian