Ghana needs community cinemas to grow sector, says Business manager for Silverbird Cinemas

The Business manager for Silverbird Cinemas, Nana Yaw Twum- Barimah Yeboah is calling for the establishment and expansion of community cinemas across the country to rekindle the cinema experience in Ghana.

With a fervent belief that Ghana has not lost its cinema-going culture, he indicated that people have fallen for that narrative because there were not many cinemas, urging stakeholders to take immediate action to salvage the situation.

Speaking on Graphic Showbiz’s X Dialogue Series on the topic Ghana Cinema Agenda: “The Need for Community Cinemas” he stated, “We’ve not lost the cinema-going culture; it’s because we have few of them.”

Drawing attention to the situation in the Ashanti region, he revealed that the city boasts less than 330 seats in its cinemas, leaving many movie enthusiasts longing for an authentic experience in the cinemas. (Ghana hosts first Africa cinema summit in November)

In his words, “Imagine a big local movie release, and just a little over 2000 people can have access to this viewing experience across the entire city. How do we have people access cinema halls when the seats are so limited?”

He noted that Ghana needed more screens and cinemas to realise the full potential of the industry and generate enough income for local movies.

Twum- Barimah Yeboah also highlighted the instances when Silverbird Cinemas had to turn people away because they sold-out shows, indicating the undeniable demand for quality entertainment.

He similarly emphasised the role of expanded cinema networks in the success of blockbuster movies, using the example of Marvel’s spectacular earnings, such as 1.2 billion.

 “It’s because there are lots of screens all over, culminating into these numbers,” he added.

 He believes that with more screens, Ghana can experience the  cinema-going culture accurately.

Apart from Nana Yaw Twum-Barimah Yeboah, other speakers on the show were Juliet Asante, CEO of National Film Authority, Alayo Machado, Account Manager, Filmone Entertainment, and Ivan Quashigah, Film Producer and CEO of Farmhouse productions.