The end of April ushered us into the second quarter of the year. Usually at this time, we start assessing the four months and what has been achieved and what the next year may turn out to be. The film industry is currently recovering from most of the things Covid-19 did to it. We should remember that after the pandemic, streamers such as Netflix, Amazon, Disney Plus, and Max, among others, upped their efforts of releasing original content.
With the competition from streamers becoming intense, studios which also own streaming services started simultaneously releasing some of their biggest titles, this saw films such as Black Widow, Raya and the Last Dragon, Cruella, Mulan, and Wonder Woman, among others, premiere in cinemas and the streaming platforms. This meant that cinema was no longer exclusive but beyond that, these films easily became prey for content pirates that even when they were seen by a wider audience, the investment wasn’t worth it.
The experiment by streaming platforms and studios to build numbers by releasing popular titles left cinemas bleeding for nearly two years. Most of the time, when Hollywood, the biggest driver of the cinema industry suffers, other film industries, probably with the exception of Bollywood suffer. Uganda is not an exception, considering that piracy thrives in this market even on licensed media; thus, after years of struggling, cinema businesses have been making a slow comeback over the years.
With films such as Barbie and Oppenheimer taking people back to cinema, the industry has been experiencing a boost, but in Uganda, it works differently at times, the films with rave reviews at times don’t attract the numbers and those everyone thinks fell short make the most out of local audiences.
Which is not very different about the box office leaders in Uganda so far. The first quarter of the year has been a mixed bag with films such as Flight Risk, Mickey 17, Den of Thieves, The Amatuer, Black Bag and Novacaine among other titles. The two most watched films in Ugandan cinemas in the first quarter were Snow White and Captain America: Brave New World. Snow White, follows a story of, well, Snow White, who is fleeing from an evil queen.
She finds refuge with Dopey, Bashful, Grumpy, Sneezy, Happy, Doc and Sleepy. When the palace guards embark on a mission to bring her back, a commoner and his group of woodland bandits band together to protect her. Then Captain America: Brave New World, this is stylised as Captain America 4 in some markets; it is Sam Wilson’s first outing as Captain America, after years as Falcon in the Marvel series.
Sam finds himself in the middle of an international incident after meeting with President Thaddeus Ross. He must soon discover the reason behind a nefarious global plot before the true mastermind has the entire world seeing red.
Besides these two films being top sellers in Uganda, they have one thing in common; they both underwhelmed critics around the world. Snow White was bashed by critics and the audience for being too woke; it was criticised for the controversial casting, the storyline changes and oh, the CGI dwarfs instead of casting real dwarfs.
The film has been generally considered a global flop. Captain America wasn’t majorly a bad film but only happened at a time when people are generally tired of super hero and franchise films. The film faced criticism for a convoluted plot, uninspired visuals, and a lacklustre portrayal of Sam Wilson as Captain America.
Yet the films regardless of reviews did well in Uganda; Acram Juuko, the head of marketing and communication at Century Cinemax says most of the people came for these films based on their interest in the original stories and franchises.
What does a Ugandan filmmaker learn out of this?
It has been said by artists such as A-Pass that most Ugandans don’t listen to music but PR, the more a Ugandan song is promoted, the more it will trump better songs. That’s why it is easier finding songs flying off TikTok trends and turning into Ugandan anthems week in week out. It is not very different with the cinema business, a film doesn’t have to be the best to make a killing in Ugandan cinemas. In fact, all it has to take is peculiar marketing and throwing it in the faces of the audience. The more Ugandans are familiar with a film the more many will show up in large numbers to support its release. Captain America 4 may have been a weak film, but it has a cult following thanks to the Avenger saga which came before it. The audience turned up because of the belief the Marvel saga has built over the years. The same can be said about Snow White, already a popular cartoon, most people did not turn up to this one because they believed it would be a good film, they showed up to relieve their childhood. But above it all, there’s an underlining theme about the kind of films Ugandans love seeing, they love action films, explosions, but above it all, stories they have a connection with and has been marketed well.
