Cinemas on the brink of bankcruptcy

Cinemas on the brink of bankcruptcy

JAKARTA (JP): At least 800 cinemas are on the verge of
bankruptcy and may soon follow the 3,000 that have already closed
down.

The Ministry of Information's director general of radio,
television and film, Ishadi SK, said yesterday that most of the
800 cinemas catered to poorer audiences by screening locally made
films.

However the ailing national film industry has produced only a
handful of movies in the last few years.

Ishadi said that these cinemas were also finding it difficult
to purchase new copies of local films to entice audiences, while
purchasing new major foreign movies was too expensive.

Owners of the cinemas are attempting to survive by recycling
old movies but audiences are quickly tiring of these, Antara
reported.

Ishadi said the government would do its best by assisting with
the distribution of films, but due to its limited budget it has
yet to work out a viable means to do this.