Main Article on ChapterOne date May 2nd 2011

Since March 2011, Motion Picture Association (MPA) stopped their distribution to Indonesia. As we all know, on February the controversy about the taxes that MPA have to pay to Indonesia’s government. With no more big movies from Hollywood certainly has made lots of people disappointed. MPA as the distributor of almost every big studio from Hollywood like 20^th Century Fox, Disney, Paramount, and Sony have said their objection to Indonesia’s government. They think that what they have to pay is too high. But Indonesia’s government has their reason why the taxes that MPA have to pay are high. It’s because there are 9 importers from MPA which have not paid they’re taxes.

Those importers have brought about 250 movies to Indonesia from 2009-2010. Actually this problem became serious because those importers didn’t pay their debts which are about Rp 30 Billion. From those 250 movies, of course there are movies from MPA. According to MPA, just like what the representative of Theater Company 21 has said, they have paid all the taxes. Indonesia’s government then decided to make a new act for those importers and MPA that according to the government is made to protect the industry. The new act is saying that importers have to add the royalties from the movies to the taxes they have to pay. This act has made MPA stopped their distribution to Indonesia and asked for another negotiation for the best solution for everyone. While they’re negotiating, MPA has decided to suspend their distribution. “Until there is a deal, all of the movies will be suspended,” said Frank Whitteman, Vice President of MPA for South East Asia.

With no more Hollywood movies, it will be a huge mistake by the government. The impact is not only for the movie lovers in Indonesia but also to the industry itself. Theaters industry in Indonesia is depend to audiences. Remember, audiences are not food customers. Food customers, if they can’t eat a hamburger they will have sandwich. It’s a different case with audiences, if they can’t watch the sequel of Harry Potter this year, they won’t watch Pocong film sequel for example. If the audiences of Harry potter chose to stay at home instead of going to theaters for Pocong movie, the income from the last year Harry Potter movie will be gone. Maybe other audiences will be still watching Pocong movie, but still the income is not as bigger as Harry Potter’s income. We all know that Harry Potter has a huge fan base and compare to that, Pocong has nothing. When the company fell on a great loss, they have to fire lots of employers. Finally, if the theaters company bankrupt, there are no more theaters for our Pocong movies. So, the bigger impact will be affecting the industry.

Another effect of this controversy is DVD piracy. We all know that piracies in Indonesia are getting worst. Government kept saying that we have to fight back piracy. Those campaigns made by the government are saying that. But as we seen here, the efforts are useless if the way they act is supporting piracy. When people cannot watch the movies they wanted to watch like Harry Potter or Twilight then they will choose those pirated DVDs.

The other effect of this problem is that it will be affecting the local movies. Perhaps it helps the local movies to be on the theaters without having a competition with Hollywood movies, but there will be no references for the local film makers to make good movies. We all know that Hollywood is the best reference because movies from Hollywood are great in almost every aspect, the story, the film making and certainly the actors. Cut Mini, an actress, said “We go to the theaters to watch local or Hollywood movies, now we have no more choices.” It will be boring I guess.

 The government should consider this matter in order to save the industry. The Minister of Cultures and Tourism, Jero Wacik, had promised that the problems will be solved before March 30^th or before the “Day of National Film”. But until now, we don’t see any deals between MPA and Indonesia’s government.