Charles Teves
Former Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzo has claimed that tickets for the film “Katips” sold out at a Taguig mall.
In a tweet dated August 3, she said the movie tickets sold at SM Aura.
“KATIPS is sold out in SM Aura. With FAMAS awardee Direk Vince Tañada. #KatipsTheMovie,” said Guanzon.
KATIPS is sold out in SM Aura . With FAMAS awardee Direk Vince Tanada .#KatipsTheMovie pic.twitter.com/OeS4FN6ZGJ
— Rowena Guanzon (@rowena_guanzon) August 3, 2022
Moviegoers said the tickets sold for the 6:35 PM slot and that the cinema became packed at around 9:30 PM.
“Hi! As of this writing, the 6:35 PM showing for #KatipsTheMovie is already sold out. The 9:30 PM screening is slowly running out of seats,” one netizen said who offered proof.
Guanzon also took pictures with actress Nicole Laurel Asensio who played “Lara” in the said movie.
Nicole, apo ni Fides Cuyugan Asencio is the lead actor in #KatipsTheMovie . Sugod na kayo sa sinehan ! pic.twitter.com/gDm0FBG3FW
— Rowena Guanzon (@rowena_guanzon) August 3, 2022
During an appearance on Cristy Ferminute, Tañada said he doesn’t care about ticket sales. He simply wants people to watch it because the film took a lot of effort to make and he used a good portion of his savings from lawyering to fund it.
Katips came out as a direct challenger to director Darryl Yap’s “Maid in Malacañang (MIM).” Both are set in the martial law era. The former is all about the experience of student activists during the Marcos dictatorship while the latter depicts the last three days of the Marcos family before being kicked out of the country by the Filipino people.
Both films were released on August 3 and arguments went from being strictly political to very petty. MIM critics say that the film bombed while Katips critic also used the same argument.
https://twitter.com/ISDA_Tambasakan/status/1554772884047876096?s=20&t=fI_mHH_EyHrVOHgkAG-5Xw
Marcos supporters really made an effort to emphasize that Katips wasn’t that interesting to begin with, hence, the empty cinemas.
https://twitter.com/Mel_Chor2021/status/1554698990280929281?s=20&t=fI_mHH_EyHrVOHgkAG-5Xw
Hahaha ano na KATIPS LANGAW PA MORE pic.twitter.com/xHIdeb2M2e
— dawood abdullah (@dawood1983) August 3, 2022
https://twitter.com/FerrerMigo/status/1554879952348119040?s=20&t=fI_mHH_EyHrVOHgkAG-5Xw
https://twitter.com/creeradios94/status/1554832656541437953?s=20&t=fI_mHH_EyHrVOHgkAG-5Xw
Meanwhile, MIM critics said that the film struggled to sell tickets.
https://twitter.com/itsmedelfinb/status/1555004063661449216?s=20&t=fI_mHH_EyHrVOHgkAG-5Xw
Kamusta naman ang mga pila ng "Maid in Malacañang"? 95% ba ay may hawak na free ticket? Aminin. #MaidInMalacañang #MiM
— Arvin Ello (@ronivalle) August 3, 2022
The fact is both movies did pretty well in terms of ticket sales. MIM also sold out in certain cinemas which is good for the Philippine film industry.
https://twitter.com/Vegz05/status/1554845305626959872?s=20&t=fI_mHH_EyHrVOHgkAG-5Xw
https://twitter.com/Ai2Yummy/status/1554835279126507522?s=20&t=VASKvtRC-VZ0mvi5Uu2qFg
Viva Films thanked moviegoers who chose to watch MIM over its counterpart.
“Nagpapasalamat kami sa lahat ng pumila at nanuod mula Luzon, Visayas at Mindanao. Muling nanumbalik ang sigla ng PELIKULANG PILIPINO dahil sa ating pagkakaisa. Ito na ang simula!” it wrote on Facebook.
Sen. Imee Marcos also denied that MIM tickets were being given out for free.
“Naku para namang ang Viva papayag ng ganon? Kilala naman natin si Boss Vic Del Rosario. Lahat ‘yan binibili. Kaya nga lang maraming sektor ang nag-volunteer kaagad at humingi ng block screening. ‘Yan yung pinamimigay na ticket sa mga empleyado, sa staff, sa mga kamag-anak. Marami na ring loyalista, siguro bahagi na dyan ‘yung 31 million,” she said.
Currently, MIM only achieved a 2.2 rating out of 10 on IMDB.
