Egyptians throng theaters despite terror risk
The severe security situation in Egypt seems to have had little effect on movie theaters, which have enjoyed high turnout this summer in spite of spiking rates of terror attacks.
Theaters in Egypt saw a high turnout as people flocked to watch movies during the Eid al-Fitr season, which started July 17. Five new movies are currently vying for the top-grossing spot: “Welad Rizk,” starring Ahmed Ezz; “Hayati Mbahdalah,” starring Mohamed Saad; “Sekkar Morr;” “Nawm al-Talat,” starring Hani Ramzi; and “Shad Ajza,” starring Mohammed Ramadan.
All five movies had high production costs amounting to approximately 84 million Egyptian pounds (about $10.5 million) in total. The Egyptian state did not contribute to the funding of any of them, despite producers’ concerns before Eid al-Fitr over possible low turnout because of the large number of terrorist operations that plagued the country during Ramadan. Chief among those was the bombing of the Italian Consulate in the center of the country July 11 as well as the assassination of Attorney General Hisham Barakat on June 29. There was also the July 1 attack on the Egyptian armed forces in North Sinai by Wilayat Sinai, in addition to the targeting of theaters — the Radubis Cinema on Al-Haram Street in Giza was bombed twice. The first theater attack occurred in January 2014 and killed one person, and the suspect accused of bombing the cinema confessed to being linked to Wilayat Sinai and said that targeting theaters is designed to kill the police officers guarding them. The second bombing occurred July 17, 2015.
Despite the danger, theater owners decided to open their doors to benefit from the Eid al-Fitr holiday season, typically a profitable one. According to Hani Abdel Fattah, head of studios and theaters for the Egyptian Sound, Light and Cinema Company, the public continued to gather in cinemas to watch movies despite the bombing attempts.
Filmmakers were badly impacted by the terrorist attacks and their negative effects on the film industry, as the public grew fearful of going to theaters. However, theater managers insisted on returning to work in January 2014 to stand in the face of terrorist operations — specifically after the bombing of the Radubis Cinema.
