Theatres all over the nation is celebrating National Cinema Day on the 23rd of September where tickets are priced at Rs. 75 and Rs. 150 (imax screens) respectively. Except a few theatre chains in South India, whole of India is quite literally preparing to come back to the movies. What better day to be back to the movies than the day where class barriers would be broken and the nation would collectively celebrate the movies. As of now Brahmastra, Avatar and Chup are the three films that’d be watched in large numbers at the theatres on the D day.
Trade Analysts are taken aback at the record-breaking advances of all three films. The race is led by Brahmastra which is running sold out in Maharashtra and Delhi with extra 6am shows being opened. The film sold almost 5 lakh tickets already for the day. A relatively indie film like Chup is following brahmastra with around 60k tickets already sold. Avatar re-release has also sold around 30 k tickets by today. The numbers are surely bound to increase and September 23rd is going to write history in terms of footfalls.
Brahmastra would emerge as a popcorn blockbuster that defied critics and paid boycott campaigns effortlessly. According to sources the film’s day 15 footfalls would outdo opening day footfalls by a mile. The major inference from this is that an entertaining film will be watched. If a film manages to create curiosity amongst audience, given a chance they’d flock to the theatres. Reduced ticket prices being a huge bonus.
Chup’s footfalls also have made it certain that the film would inch closer to a hit verdict. This would be another wake-up call for producers, theatre owners and distributors when they go ahead with ticket pricing. Although big budget films need to move ahead with moderate to higher ticket pricing for recovery, mid-budget and small films can easily get back their investments with lower ticket prices. The way shows are being sold-out like hot-cakes, it is pretty clear that the audience is ready to come back to the movies. In most cases, ticket pricing is what pushes the audience away from the movies. However, this doesn’t mean people would watch anything and everything. Yash Raj Films had very minimal ticket pricing for its slate of films post pandemic. Starting from Bunty Aur Babli 2 to Shamshera. None of the films worked this good or generated praiseworthy footfalls. At the end of the day it boils down to content as well.
An almost 15 year old film Avatar is also going sold-out at the movies for its re-release in the country. The writing is on the wall. The audience loves the movies. They love the theatre experience. They love the high a good movie offers inside a cinema hall. It’s always been the pricing and content..and not just the scale of the film. This National Cinema Day could revive Hindi cinema Industry like no other. This 23rd September could give so many worth noting inferences for the stakeholders of movie business.
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