Indonesian Cinema Spectators Can Reach 80 Million People With Equity

JAKARTA - The potential for moviegoers in Indonesian cinemas can reach 80 million people. However, the condition is that there is an even distribution of cinemas throughout the country.

Observer and researcher for the film Hikmat Darmawan said that the current proportion of movie audiences in the country is not proportional to the total population of Indonesia.

In terms of the proportion of the Indonesian population, I always use the conservative figure of the estimated market potential of 80 million viewers. This (the number of viewers) is related to the population, the number of cinemas, which is spread," he quoted Antara as saying.

Nevertheless, Hikmat said the Indonesian film industry had gradually recovered after being hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of moviegoers in theaters has returned to the way it was before COVID-19.

The Indonesian film industry is also considered quite good because many local films get more than 1 million viewers.

According to data from the Indonesian Film Agency (BPI), the film industry in Indonesia attracted 51.2 million viewers in 2019, but then fell to only about 19 million viewers in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of spectators will decline in 2021 with only 4.5 million spectators, and will only resume in 2022 with 24 million spectators.

The Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy noted that the film industry in Indonesia has grown positively throughout 2023, with the number of cinema moviegoers in Indonesia reaching 55 million people.

Hikmat assessed that the number of viewers of Indonesian cinemas should be more than that if it is accompanied by adequate film distribution. Cinema uniformity is still a challenge faced by the Indonesian film industry.

"According to the Indonesian Film Agency, currently there are 517 cinema locations with 2,145 screens spread across 115 cities/districts throughout Indonesia," he said.

He gave an example of KKN in Penari Village, which is now the highest-grossing film of all time with a total audience of 10 million viewers still small when compared to the Indonesian population of more than 270 million people.

According to Hikmat, investing, caring for, and taking sides with local films, including opening cinemas in various cities, is a logical step towards expanding the Indonesian film market.

He also emphasized the importance of building a diverse film market. This market not only shows popular films or commercially successful films (blockbusters), but also provides more opportunities and rations for local films to be shown in theaters.

He added that cinemas must also be built in areas because low-middle class cinemas that are cheap have great potential to encourage the advancement of the Indonesian film industry.

"In my opinion, in small cities, cheap cinemas are the future of our industry," he said.

"The government, entrepreneurs, spectators, and PH (production houses) must share their duties to achieve this target (80 million spectators)," he said.