Movie producers and distributors in the hub of the Ghanaian movie industry, Ashanti Region, often referred to as Kumawood have cried of their current predicaments due to low patronage of their works citing the ongoing World cup as a reason.
In an interview Paul Adjei, CEO ofPaul Gee Productions to find out possible reasons for the low patronage of their movies, he explained to nydjlive.com thatthe situation was as result of the world cup as the fever had caught up with everyone leaving the movies on their (distributors and marketers) shelves without people patronizing them.
“Most often people would want to watch our movies after work but here is the case football matches are being telecast on almost all the TV networks during those times. Even if they would want to watch the movies, how many families have two TVs so that they would not cause any trouble at home as the men would want to watch the football matches? This has therefore prevented people from buying our movies.”
Asked why they would still produce and release movies during such a season, he explained a total drought will be disastrous to the industry hence the decision to release some movies. He however added that many producers had put on hold their movies since it would affect their returns.
“Each week, six movies are released unto the market but there were only two this week. Can you imagine why? Because no one wants to run at a loss”
Similar sentiments were shared by other attendants from movie outlets. A sales attendant at Osewus Ventures who was also watching a football game at the time of the interview explained the football season was just not good for the movie business as patronage has been on the low despite increased radio adverts and publicity.
Could the low patronage of these movies really be as a result of the ongoing world cup or something is not right?
