Re-opening of cinemas: Singer provides solution to James Aboagye’s worry of running at loss

Rising Ghanaian musician, Daud Agyeman, has added his voice to the recent discussion on the government’s decision to reopen cinemas after putting certain measures in place and President of FIPAG, James Aboagye’s comment about it.
President of the Film Producers Association of Ghana (FIPAG) James Aboagye, said in an interview that he does not support the government’s decision of reopening of cinemas amid the pandemic on the condition that they observe social distancing protocols.
According to him, this means that they will only gain half of what they used to get from their showings and that will make them run at a loss if they are supposed to give the cinema operators a percentage of that money.
Daud, speaking with Dr. Cann on Happy98.9FM’s Showbiz Xtra, adopted Kofi Asamoah’s suggestion that movie producers will only have to increase the number of showings that they have in a day.
He said, “I was a little disappointed by his comment because people are really looking forward to get back to their work and others have even lost their jobs so for the president of FIPAG to come out with such a statement, I feel it’s quite insensitive to the plight of his own people”.
I think what he as a president should have done was to put measures in place so that when this idea materializes, it will make the producers benefit. KOFAS suggested that the producers pitch for more show time so that if initially there were six showings of the movie, now you multiply it to ten or twelve showings in a day and I think that’s the best”, Daud added.
The singer again drew attention to the fact that cinemas are only packed with lots of people when there is a movie premiere and on regular days, there is always a lot of space, therefore the only time strict measures will have to be taken is when there is a movie premiere in the cinema.
On this note, he further commented that cinemas are the best place where social media protocols can be adhered to easily hence, the possibility of the Covid-19 virus spreading due to the opening of cinemas is very low.
By: Maureen Dedei Quaye