Banking big time on Kathryn-Alden movie

What’s with SM Cinemas for starting to sell tickets for the film Hello, Love, Again this month when that reunion movie of Kathryn Bernardo and Alden Richards premieres on 13 November yet? As far as we know, it’s the first time a local film has advanced ticket selling online — way advanced, at that!

Is the Cinema management worried that its ticket-selling areas will be jampacked all the time if tickets are sold only on the day the movie will be viewed? That’s likely to happen because malls open as late as 11 a.m. and gates close after the last full show in the cinemas.

Hello, Love, Again is a sequel to Hello, Love, Goodbye, which was the Philippines’ highest grossing film until Rewind of real-life couple Marian Rivera and Dingdong Dantes came along as an entry in the 2023 Metro Manila Film Festival. It was later shown abroad -- in cities and towns that abound with Pinoys. 

Producers and theater bookers of Pinoy films must already be well aware of the box-office potency of the Bernardo-Richards reunion movie. We’ve not heard of any Pinoy movie slated to open on 13 November, alongside Hello, Love, Again. But there will likely be foreign films showing that week since the patrons of foreign films don’t bother with Filipino fares at the cinema. 

It’s possible that Hello, Love, Again may extend in at least one cinema of the SM malls until the end of November. It won’t only be Star Cinema that will rejoice over the box-office take of that reunion film, but also GMA Pictures that may be said to have gotten smarter by seeing to it that they get to be co-producer of the film since Richards is their “property.”

The Kapuso network didn’t arrange with ABS-CBN Star Cinema five years ago to be a co-producer of Hello, Love, Goodbye. It also didn’t arrange to be co-producers of Rewind. It’s Dantes’ Agosto Dos Productions that made such a deal.

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Those who have the money, but not the nerves to get something fixed in their faces, take heart from SB19 stalwarts Pablo Nase and Stell Ajero. 

The two now very good-looking and smooth-skinned singing-dancing idols turned up at Boy Abunda’s Fast Talk on GMA 7 recently and admitted to the host they’ve been to aestheticians (beauty doctors) to improve their looks and to feel better about themselves.

The almost fierce-talking Ajero practically ranted: “Pag tinatanong ako kung pinabago yung kuwan ko, o yung ano, sinasabi ko na ang totoo. Kasi kung idi-deny ko, hindi naman sila naniniwala, at kung anu-ano pa ang sasabihin. At wala naman talagang mali sa pagpapabago ng dapat baguhin (When I get asked if I have had anything done on me, this or that, I tell the truth. Even if I deny it, they won’t believe me anyway, and even say all sorts of things. And there really is nothing wrong with fixing what needs fixing)...”

The seemingly imperturbable Nase almost casually admitted that he never thought he would want his face touched by a doctor. “Pero isang araw, natagpuan ko na lang ang sarili ko na nagpapa-filling sa noo at nung makita ko ang epekto sa itsura ko (Then one day, I found myself having fillers on my forehead and when I saw how it improved my looks), I felt better about myself.”

Nase stressed that people should not get upset about surgical procedures done on their idols since they have the money for it. 

“Perang kinita naman namin ang ginastos namin (That’s money we earned anyway)!” said Nase, the band leader in so many ways. He writes their songs and produces their records. He is also the chief executive officer of 1Z Entertainment, the company the members formed to manage themselves when they broke free from the Philippine-based Korean company that put the members together and introduced them to the public in 2018 after two years of “secret training” in South Korea and in the Philippines.

The five boys of SB19 do look so much better these days than when they were launched in their younger years. Compare their photos these days with their younger ones in 2018.

Ajero’s and Nase’s simultaneous guesting on Fast Talk is mainly about their being both coaches on GMA 7’s new show The Voice Kids, a singing contest for talents aged seven to 14. The show airs Sundays at 7:05 pm. Its two other coaches are Billy Crawford and Julie Ann San Jose.