Elite filmaker Shirley Frimpong Manso has lamented the destruction of the DVD market in Ghana, an occurrence which is part of the wider trend of the nearly dead Ghanaian film industry.
According to Shirley, there was a time during the boom period of ‘A Sting in the Tale’ and ‘The Perfect Picture’ when they could sell 150,000 copies of DVDs but these days, it’s a good day when you can sell 1,000.
Shirley was speaking during the press screening of her latest movie ‘Potato Potahto’ at the Silverbird Cinema at the Accra Mall.
“The movie industry in Ghana has basically just taken a nosedive, it’s not been the same like the days of the ‘Perfect Picture’, the days of ‘A Sting in a Tail’ we seem to have had an upsurge and it suddenly went away,” she said.
“People are not buying the movies anymore…,the DVD markets are not there anymore as we used to sell about 150,000 copies of DVDs. Now you are lucky if you sell a thousand,”
The filmaker said she believes external forces also played a role in this collapse, such as the multi year long load shedding (dumsor).
“Our DVD market is collapsed completely. It just seems like the ‘dumsor’ (load shedding) period also didn’t help because people needed to spend money on perhaps getting fuel than perhaps buying a DVD.” she continued.
She added: “It is like a risk that you know you are definitely bound to fail…that is why some of us have taken calculated steps to change things a little. If you realise, ‘Potato Potahto’ has been out for almost a year…we decided to take a different approach,”
‘Potato Potahto’, which we previewed here, premieres in Ghana on the 30th of November.