Sahamongkolfilm International Co, a Thai motion picture production and distribution firm, is set to aggressively expand by budgeting several hundred million baht to produce at least 10 movies in 2019.
Chomsajee Techaratanaprasert, the company's vice-president for sales, said four movies will be produced under joint ventures with business partners and six will be under Sahamongkolfilm's own investment.
She said the market for Thai movies has been growing in line with the expansion of cinemas, especially in upcountry locations. Higher-quality Thai movies are another condition helping to further the business.
The 70-80 Thai movies released to the market each year are considered a small amount, Ms Chomsajee said, at least compared with big markets like China or South Korea, where hundreds of titles surface annually.
"Each year our company normally produces in the range of 12 to 18 movies," said Ms Chomsajee, daughter of movie veteran Somsak Techaratanaprasert.
Mr Somsak, aka Sia Jiang, is the founder of Sahamongkolfilm, whose hits include Ong-Bak and Tom Yum Goong.
Ms Chomsajee said the company paused investment for two years because of changes in consumer behaviour in terms of watching movies and the rise of digital technology and its influence on the entertainment industry.
"People have more choice in seeing movies in the digital era," she said. "At present, we cannot guess whether we will gain or lose from the films we release to the market."
Ms Chomsajee said she's not so worried about technology disruption, given that the company and the industry experienced much the same thing when DVD disrupted the video space.
She also believes that watching movies at the cinema is still a unique experience -- a form of entertainment beyond the reach of a TV screen or tablet.
Sahamongkolfilm brought in about 160 million baht in revenue from two movies released this year: Khun Pan 2, an action film about a suspended police officer who goes undercover in a famous bandit gang, and Viral, a ghost story.
Though the economy is not as good as in the past, the Thai movie market is still seeing growth.
According to an industry source, revenue from Thai movies in the market accounted for about 16% of the total in 2017, while foreign movies contributed 84%.
With more Thai movies being made and released to the market, Ms Chomsajee is confident that the portion of Thai movies will increase, probably to 30%, by the end of this year.
"The competition among Thai movies is intense, but it still offers an opportunity if we can follow the changes in consumer tastes, particularly among teenage customers," she said. "This is our challenge."
Apart from releasing its movies in the domestic market, Sahamongkolfilm exported Khun Pan 2 and Viral to many countries in Asia.
At the same time, the company is in talks with interested investors to show the two movies in Europe and America as well.
Sahamongkolfilm also imported about 60 movies to sell in Thailand via various channels this year.
Ms Chomsajee said the studio is looking to produce series from its own movie content to provide to TV channels or mobile apps next year, and it also secured the rights to about 1,000 foreign movies.
"The plans is for Sahamongkolfilm under the management of the second generation to remain strong like it did under my father," Ms Chomsajee said.
Sahamongkolfilm's sales from just the cinema channel are 800 million to 1 billion baht and are expected to increase to 1.2-1.5 billion baht next year.
