People are not going to theaters. This should not be a surprise to most people, but the turnouts are so low that the previous sentence can be replaced with “People have forgotten about theaters” and it would not be that far from the truth. Ticket prices remain unchanged but people are not coming to cinemas, for good reason.
After the near seven month lockdown period in India, and the subsequent rise in coronavirus cases once the official “Unlock” began, it is an understandable reaction. Sitting in a huge, cold cinema hall filled with people for over two hours is just asking for trouble, especially post-Covid. So staying at home and sticking with OTTs like Disney+ Hotstar, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video seems to be the choice decision among most Indians.
‘TENET’ released on Friday and for the first time in months, there has been “decent” turnout with cities like Mumbai and Bengaluru doing “well”. Obviously these numbers are being compared to the box office number of the last two months, so the actual stats have remained underwhelming. One of the big screens in Bangalore barely had 12 people in the cinema hall showcasing ‘TENET’ and there were almost no other people entering other cinema halls. In fact, it looked like there were more people among the cinema staff compared to the number of people who came to watch the feature.
It has been a metaphorical bloodbath so far, with theaters and cinema halls bleeding money due to lack of audience members. There have been a few Indian indie flicks and regional films, but besides the Christopher Nolan masterpiece ‘TENET’, no other production company has released a big budget film to screen on theaters yet. On Christmas we are expecting a couple more blockbusters to release such as ‘Wonder Woman’ and ‘Soul’, but Bollywood, Kollywood, Tollywood and other regional film industries are still taking the wait and see approach.
Nothing can replace the theatrical experience – which many feel is true. But no one seems to want that experience currently. Hopefully in the upcoming few months, we will see a boost in the turnouts.
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