Why are Pinoys no longer excited for Filipino films?

“It’s not your job to keep theaters open… it’s our job to make things that make it worth you coming out.”

That was Ryan Gosling at a Hollywood screening for Project Hail Mary, and honestly, he hit the nail on the head. It comes from Hollywood, but the logic is universal. And in the Philippines, it’s hard to ignore.

Empty cinemas tell part of the story. The real question is who is missing. Filipinos are still watching movies, just not local ones.

A shrinking industry

Even the FDCP is sounding the alarm. Their 2025 study with De La Salle University admitted there’s a “noticeable decline in the performance of the local film industry.” The numbers are brutal: film submissions to the MTRCB crashed from 236 in 2024 to just 105 in 2025. That is more than half the industry just...vanishing.

Meanwhile, the box office is still struggling to find its feet. We haven’t seen pre-pandemic numbers in years, and new releases dropped by 19 percent in early 2025 (ACFM, 2025). The pipeline is drying up, and so is the hype.

The price problem

Here’s the kicker: the cost of watching hasn’t caught up to our reality. FDCP chairman Jose Javier Reyes put it bluntly: “Yung limang piso sa bulsa mo, mas may saysay kesa sa limang daang piso sa panaginip mo. (The five pesos in your pocket is worth more than the five hundred pesos in your dreams.)” (15 July 2025).

Filmmaker Jun Robles Lana went even deeper, saying in a Facebook post that by pricing the average Filipino out of the theater, the industry has not just lost customers. It has “lost its soul.” Cinema is no longer a weekly habit for the masses. It is a luxury, and Filipino films are losing that choice.

Criticism backlash

Then there’s the “blame the audience” reflex. Actress Bela Padilla mentioned, as reported in the DAILY TRIBUNE (19 March 2026), that it makes her sad when Filipinos review local films harshly, calling it a lack of “patriotism or pride.”

But that’s where the logic trips up. Criticism is the signal. When audiences reject a film, they are not betraying the country. They are reacting to what is on screen. Calling it “unpatriotic” is just a way to avoid accountability.

No room for excuses

Even if you ignore taste, the math just doesn’t work anymore. We’re in a State of National Energy Emergency (EO 110). Diesel is over P130, gas is over P100, and electricity bills are through the roof (DoE; IEA, March 2026).

Going to the movies has become a calculated risk, not a casual choice. A family day out can easily burn P1,500 to P2,000. As those industry briefings point out, families are literally choosing between a movie and being able to afford the commute to work (DoE/DoF, March 2026). Choosing not to watch a local film often comes down to survival.

The audience moved

The wild part? Filipinos are still obsessed with content. Netflix, Vivamax, YouTube — we’re all over it. Vivamax has hit 12 million subscribers, and YouTube is reaching nearly 60 million Pinoy users (Media Meter, 2025).

Even the big guys like Star Cinema have pivoted, building massive YouTube audiences and dropping hundreds of titles for free (Vitrina AI, 2026). The audience remains — they simply chose where value exists.

It comes down to value

Let’s be real. Filipinos are not avoiding the cinema. They are avoiding Filipino films in the cinema.

That is the hard truth the industry has to face. If it wants that trust back, it has to fix the foundation. Pricing, access, distribution and most importantly, the stories themselves. The experience has to feel undeniable again. It has to feel worth it for a Filipino to spend hard-earned money on a local movie.

And this goes back to what Gosling said. It is not the audience’s job to keep cinemas alive. It is the industry’s job to give them a reason to come back.

This is not “colonial mentality.” This is common sense. This is about value.