90 Latin Survey-Film March 22-28,1989

Mexican govt, film distrib tries to clean up its act

Argentina: top earning domestic pics in '88 Buenos Aires Listed below are the biggest-drawing Argentine films at local cinemas in 1988. The figures are countrywide. All films seen by at least 5,000 spectators are listed. Leftover releases from the previous year are included.

The column reading "Screen Days" actually refers to screen days multiplied by the number of screens showing the film; i.e., ifapic-ture was shown for just one week, but at two cinemas simultaneously, the number of "screen days" is not seven but 14.

Title

"Sur" "Expedition Atlantis" "Petete y Trapito" "Attracion peculiar" "La deuda interna" "Los extraterrestres no se rinden" "Los pilotos mas locos del mundo" "Las puertitas del Sr. Lopez" "El profesor punk" "Tres alegres fugitivos" "Paraiso relax (Casa de masajes)" "Lo que vendra" "Extrahas salvajes" "Permiso para pensar" "Alguien te esta mirando" "Los amores de Kafka" "La clinica loca" "Ico, el caballito valiente" "Mama querida" "El manosanta esta cargado" "El amor es una mujer gorda" "El camino de sur" "Made In Argentina" "Hombre mirando al sudeste" "La clinica del doctor Cureta" "Los matamonstruos/mansion del terror" "Abierto de 18 a 24" "Gracias pos los servicios" "Tango, baile nuestro" "Relacion prohibida" "Rosa de lejos" "Los baheros mas locos del mundo" "Johnny Tolengo el majestuoso" "El aho del conejo" "Billetes, billetes..." "Sin fin (La muerte/ninguna solution)" "El color esconido" "Galeria del terror"

Spectators

649,984 514,118 401,287 395,380 372,031 303,933 299,773 277,623 260,259 228,499 147,557 120,430 61,445 46,645 43,713 40,708 37,299 26,496 23,765 19,985 17,518 16,342 14,346 12,892 12,146 10,063 9,829 9,252 8,238 7,588 7,575 6,734 6,510 6,412 5,951 5,940 5,254 5,055

Screen Days

1,721 2,163 1,332 1,889 1,279 1,166 1,622 1,300 1,174 1,103 1,067

641 570 30

239 163 507 272 125 269 87 98

137 157 173 134 66 90 35

115 7

58 60 81 94 24 46 76

Amid charges of dirty tricks and a steady loss of markets, Pel-Mex looks to bounce back

Mexico City Peliculas Mex-icanas, the government firm devoted to international distribUi. tion of Mexican films, has gone through a difficult decade, but general director Fernando Rodri­guez Gonzalez says the company is undergoing a major change.

Known alternately as Pel-Mex or Pelimex, the 45-year-old firm has been steadily losing important U.S. and Latin American markets. Affils claim they receive the same old films again and again with lit­tle new product. Producers charge non-payment of royalties as well as double and triple-sale of film rights to international theatrical and homevid markets.

Alfonso Rosas Priego, director of the National Producers Assn., even went so far as to urge the privatization of Pel-Mex, explain­ing die sale would remove it from the quirky mismanagement tied to the government's "sexenio" sys­tem, where every six years the company falls under a new ad­ministration's rules.

"In the '50s and '60s, Pel-Mex was numero uno in Colombian dis­tribution," said Cine Banderas chief Clemente Gomez Perez, Pel-Mex's Colombian affil. "But we have lost an important market and over the past eight years we have fallen to last place. Our biggest problem is tJiat there is no product. In die meantime, kung fu films and other action movies have filled die space."

Venezuelan Pel-Mex rep En­rique Basaguren Garcia, of Cine-matografica Venezolana Pelimex, echoes his Colombian counterpart.

' 'We don't know where we're go­ing, ' ' he said.' 'The main problem is we can't get films. In 1988, we only distributed about 45 Mexican films, of which only 15 were new and the rest were reissues. The last good boxoffice film was 'La Nina de la Mochila Azul,' which was 10 years ago. We haven't had one success since."

Per Basaguren Garcia, die local firm survives through its distribu­tion of Venezuelan fare, which does well nationally.

In the U.S., Michael Donnelly, former chief of the English-lan­guage division of Pel-Mex' U.S. distrib arm Azteca, notes tine of the main problems witii Pel-Mex is disorganization. "For a while the company was replacing company heads every couple of months, and finally everything came to a stand­still."

'Egg on our face'

Per one Mexican producer, ' 'Pel-Mex sold a package of 20 of our films in Brazil without telling us. Later, when we found a buyer and went to register die titles, we found they were already regis­tered. We were left with egg on our face.'' Anodier producer notes one of his products had been triple-sold to U.S. homevid companies.

Ahhough he denies the second allegation, Rodriguez Gonzalez explained the Brazilian double-sale was die result of "a crooked law­yer who never possessed the rights to me films in the first place. The lawyer is currently being sued by Pel-Mex."

Rodriguez Gonzalez ac­knowledges there have been some problems, but says Pel-Mex is changing its ways and undergoing major restructuring. One of die few holdovers from the past ad­ministration, Rodriguez Gonzalez was reappointed Pel-Mex chief in January.

But past mistakes have reflected badly on Peliculas Mexicanas. The problem was compounded when currency restrictions were estab­lished in Mexico in 1983, and Pel-Mex was unable to make remit­tance payments to producers. Company was suddenly usurped in the important U.S. Spanish-lingo market by two rivals, Mexcinema and American General, founded by dissatisfied independent producers who continue to with­hold fresh product from Pel-Mex markets. The two firms dominate the U.S. Mexican-film market.

For die past six years, Pel-Mex has continued as best it can, mak­ing no new advances while form­er markets continue to slip from its grasp and competition grows stronger.

Helming die firm tiirough this period, Rodriguez Gonzalez is fa­miliar widi Pel-Mex' cloudy histo­ry. He readily admits to "terrible" past mistakes, but says die compa­ny has a new gameplan that in­volves restructuring die firm and reorienting its activities toward die U.S. English-lingo market, previ­ously ignored by die competition.

' 'We are developing otiier mar­keting techniques," he said. "In the past, our efforts have been

based on selling nostalgia to un­documented workers. Now we are looking at two new target au­diences: middle-class Spanish-speakers and the U.S. public mat likes foreign films."

He explains mat die U.S. mar­ket, while important, has been a factor in the declining quality of Mexican movies. "The sheer vol­ume of films needed meant quan­tity hurt quality. Since the films were screened in double bills, this meant our industry had to maintain a steady supply — close to 100 per year — to keep up with demand.''

Against the tide

To reverse this trend of industry quickies, Rodriguez Gonzalez notes the company will counter competition widi quality product. "We are currently revising our stock, finding quality movies, striking new prints, subtiding diem in English and establishing rela­tions widi U.S. exhibition chains that cater to foreign films," he said.

Pel-Mex began by unveiling a 6-film package at the Cinetex Fest in Las Vegas last September under the banner "The New Mexican Cinema." Package featured the following tides:' 'El Imperio de la Fortuna" (The Realm Of For­

tune); the Cuban-Mexican biopic on the life of Benny More "El Barbara del Ritmo" (Today Like Yesterday); "Lo Que Importa Es Vivir" (Living Is What Matters); "Dias Dificiles" (Difficult Days); "El Ultimo Tunel" (The Last Tunnel); and "Mariana, Mari­ana."

Although this project is costly and time-consuming, Rodriguez Gonzalez claims Pel-Mex can guarantee a 52-week package. It will be handled tiirough a "newly restructured" Azteca, which has been all but paralyzed in recent years.

In a late-February agreement between die Mexican Film Insti­tute and Mexico's Producers and Distributors Assn., Azteca is returning over 800 prints tiiat be­long to private producers. Even though Pel-Mex rights to these prints had expired, producers had been unable to retrieve diem dur­ing the past administration. This had been anodier point of conten­tion between die state and die pri­vate sector.

According to Rodriguez Gonza­lez, anotiier new Pel-Mex policy will be to distribute films from odi-er LatAm countries. "We can do this," he explained, "because we have die infrastructure already in place."

Argentina s top grossing foreign films in '88 Buenos Aires The foreign films listed below were seen by the largest numbers of spectators in Argentina in 1988. All films seen by at least 100,000 spectators countrywide are listed. In Argentina, because of high inflation rates, spectator figures are commonly given rather than the dollar take, since the rate for calculating die latter varies almost daily.

The column reading ' 'Screen Days" actually refers to screen days multiplied by die number of screens showing the film; i.e., if a pic­ture was shown for just one week, but at two cinemas simultaneously, the number of "screen days" is not seven but 14.

Productions from years previous to 1988, if still in the running last year, are included.

Title "Las aventuras de Chatran" "Fatal Attraction" "Rambo III" "Mannequin" "The Last Emperor" "No Way Out" "Moonstruck" "Full Metal Jacket" "Masters Of The Universe" "Dirty Dancing" "Dark Eyes" "Superman IV" "Wall Street" "The Return Of The American Ninj "No Retreat, No Surrender" "Empire Of The Sun" "Temple Of The Sun" "Nightmare On Elm Street III" "Jaws — The Revenge" "Robocop" "Crocodile Dundee II" "Emmanuelle" "Harry And The Hendersons" "The Running Man" "Police Academy V" "Broadcast News" "Three Men And A Baby" "La iniciazione" "Bagdad Cafe" "Red Heat" "Who's That Girt" "El fierecillo domado II" "Baby Boom" "Bloodsport" "Stakeout" "Big" "Innerspace"

Total Spectator 1,381,117 1,319,274

659,196 631,889 598,274 555,096 546,476 434,900 392,498 383,682 352,961 345,372 335,479

a" 314,615 254,852 249,079 243,009 224,227 199,609 196,942 194,738 194,627 194,402 180,185 167,599 165,199 153,567 151,675 150,664 149,519 139,005 131,859 131,678 130,301 108,072 103,781 100,103

s Screen Days 2,459 3,057 1,733 1,619 1,549 1,482 1,562 1,976 1,679 1,132

792 1,385 1,159 1,108 1,404 1,032 1,132

961 1,328 1,394 1,006

895 1,221

995 765 675 768 509 349 742 785 780 640 215 715 449 713