OTT platform Jio Cinema has been beautifully and aggressively reinventing its content portfolio: right from streaming the massively popular IPL 2023 cricket tournament for free to acquiring the premium HBO titles like ‘Succession’ and ‘House of the Dragon’, etc. And the month of May was a blockbuster month for the rapidly expanding OTT giant despite several misses. Let’s see how many of the titles which streamed during the month of May clicked with the audience.
We have compiled a list of the popular Indian titles which were released on Jio Cinema in May along with their ‘Hit’, ‘Miss’ or ‘Super-Hit’ status. ‘Hit’ implies good title acquisition, ‘Miss’ signifies a not-so-good title acquisition, and ‘Super-Hit’ implies a highly successful title acquisition by Jio Cinema (one bonus ‘Hit’ point given for ‘Super-Hit’ titles with total no. of titles remaining as per actual).
IPL 2023 (Sports) – Superhit
Boo (Film, Direct-to-OTT) – Miss
Chitrakut (Film, Licensed) – Miss
Bhediya (Film, Licensed) – Superhit
Crackdown Season-2 (Web Series) – Hit
Me Vasantrao (Film, Licensed) – Miss
Thugs (Film, Licensed) – Miss
Love You Abhi (Web Series) – Miss
Kacchey Limbu (Film, Direct-to-OTT) – Hit
Inspector Avinash (Web Series) – Hit
Vikram Vedha (Film, Licensed) – Superhit
Licensed Films
In May 2023, the two biggies namely ‘Vikram Vedha’ staring Hrithik Roshan & Saif Ali Khan and the werewolf comedy drama ‘Bhediya’ starring Varun Dhawan in the titular role made their brilliant OTT premieres on Jio Cinema, despite their insipid box office figures. And these two films became instant hits amongst streaming audiences. And another good thing about them was that they were streaming for free on the platform.
However, some other licensed films like ‘Chitrakut’ and ‘Me Vasantrao’ failed to draw OTT viewers in big numbers despite their reasonably favourable reviews.
Web Series
On the web series front, the month of May for Jio Cinema was decent but not as exciting as its licensed films portfolio. ‘Crackdown Season-2’ managed to garner rather good feedback from audiences. On the other hand, ‘Love You Abhi’ failed to create the required buzz and impact. And Randeep Hooda’s cop actioner ‘Inspector Avinash’ received somewhat mixed to positive reviews from critics and viewers.
Direct-to-OTT Films / Sports / Others
The direct-to-OTT bilingual horror movie ‘Boo’ neither impressed the audiences nor was it able to attract viewers because of poor feedback. However, another direct-to-OTT movie ‘Kacchey Limbu’ starring Radhika Madan in the lead role was admired by a segment of viewers. The film received positive reviews and good feedback from movie buffs.
Furthermore, unsurprisingly, the sports event which found an incredible user base during the month of May on Jio Cinema was the IPL 2023 cricket tournament. In the final match between Gujarat Titans and Chennai Super Kings, Jio Cinema registered a whopping number of 3.3 crore live viewers.
So, overall, there were three ‘Hits’, five ‘Misses’, and three ‘Super-Hit’ titles for Jio Cinema for the month of May 2023. And that’s the reason we have called it a ‘blockbuster;’ month for the OTT giant.
Jio Cinema May 2023 Success Score = 82% = 82/100
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