Moroccan Film Industry Sees 25% Drop in National Productions Amid Pandemic

Contrary to the box office figures for foreign shoots, which are expected to drop by 50% in 2020, the box office figures for national productions seem less affected by the halt in activities related to the lockdown. At the end of November, the box office for national productions was 550 million DH compared to 750 million during the entire year, a 25% drop, and for the month of December, these figures will not undergo too much change, said Sarim Fassi-Fihri, Director General of the CCM, to Médias24.

This turnover is equivalent to 250 shoots compared to 344 the previous year, a 27% drop that could stabilize at 25% by the end of 2020, thanks to a few shoots. The biggest drop was mainly in the number of feature film shoots, which fell to 12 by the end of November, compared to 22 in the same period of 2019.

However, the impact of the pandemic has not been felt on the audiovisual productions transferred to television. "While the number of advertising shoots has decreased a bit, this has not been the case for television series, with 33 already shot, compared to 39 last year, a realization rate of 85% which should reach 87% by the end of the current year." "The same goes for the number of fictions and TV movies shot to meet the increased demand due to the pandemic and confinement," the official said.

In addition, the shoots for television productions (series, fictions or TV movies...) for Ramadan 2021 have already begun, and the "good news is that despite the current pandemic that has not yet been defeated, the television channels have not decided to reduce the sails for their Ramadan 2021 productions," he added.