In contrast, when Viva and Regal both went solo in “ABNKKBSNPAko” and “Third Eye”, respectively, the box office results were not as spectacular than their co-productions with Star Cinema. Star Cinema has no new movie about to be shown in the horizon but Viva and Regal both having coming projects. Viva has “Diary ng Panget”, starring mostly little known teen stars like Nadine Ilustre, Andre Paras, Yassi Pressman and James Reid. They’re banking on the fact that the novel on which it is based is a big hit on the internet.
As for Regal, they have an upcoming romantic comedy, “So It’s You”, starring Carla Abellana (who’s the lead star in “Third Eye”) and her “My Husband’s Lover” leading man and gay husband, Tom Rodriguez. If all the fans of the hit soap “MHL” would care to watch this, then they’re assured of a hit.
The edge of Star Cinema in making movies is that they’ve mastered the art of making well made crowd pleasing romantic films. On TV, they make hit teleseryes. On the big screen, they do hit romcoms. And they have the entire machinery of ABS-CBN to promote their full length films, something that Viva and Regal do not have as TV advertising can be very exorbitant. Also, let’s face it, Kapamilya stars now seem to have more fans and followers. ABS surely knows how to cultivate the popularity and attractiveness of their stars to make them more luminous and adorable in the eyes of the public. That’s why there’s this perception that if you want to be more popular, move to ABS, just like what Anne Curtis, Cristine Reyes, Toni Gonzaga, Jake Cuenca, Paulo Avelino and other stars who started with GMA did.
