Indonesians to finally get the reel thing1 min read
Reading Time: < 1 minuteIt’s been more than five months since Indonesians have seen the latest Hollywood flicks on the big screen. But cinema owners say the long wait is now over, with monster hit “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” releasing on Friday.
Djonny Sjafruddin, head of the Indonesian Cinema Companies Union, says blockbusters “Transformers 3” and “Kung Fu Panda 2” will follow a few weeks later.
In February major Hollywood studios stopped distributing films to Indonesia, after the government said it would impose a new royalty tax on imported movies. That led to a protracted dispute between the government and the country’s movie distributors.
Sjafruddin says a new tax scheme is now in place, eliminating the royalty tax but increasing import duties by 100%.
Earlier this month, many Indonesians looked on enviously as long-awaited summer blockbusters screened in cinemas around the globe. Some made their way to neighboring Singapore.
