Strong holiday-packed weekend! : Business Talk with Taran Adarsh

By Taran Adarsh, Bollywood Hungama News Network

A prominent Mumbai distributor made a strong statement a couple of days ago. "Looking at the restricted business of films till weekend and the slump that follows on weekdays, a new set of movies should start releasing from Monday onwards. Hopefully, the business on weekdays would rejuvenate things and infuse life in business," he noted.

That rightfully sums up the business of 95% of movies churned out by the Mumbai film industry. Weekends are great [in several cases], but the business gets scarier by the day from Monday onwards. The biggest of films in the recent past [SINGH IS KINNG, BACHNA AE HASEENO, GOD TUSSI GREAT HO included] dipped on weekdays, proving yet again that the business is restricted to weekends only.

BACHNA AE HASEENO took a flying start at big city plexes, but side cinemas of even big centres, mini-metros and several circuits didn't embrace this prem kahani with equal enthusiasm. The business was divided. Again, not all plexes were running to optimum capacity.

The Independence Day holiday on 15th, Raksha Bandhan holiday on 16th, plus Sunday, the three holidays at a stretch gave film business a big boost. In this case, the plexes contributed to the booty, but the reports being extremely mixed [people haven't taken to the second hour], the fall was expected from Monday onwards. And that's what happened!

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday witnessed a huge fall even at plexes [unlike JAANE TU… YA JAANE NA, which was super-strong]. As things stand today, the business would be restricted to some plexes in Weekend 2. Beyond that, BACHNA AE HASEENO hasn't cut across to a universal audience. That's the truth!

GOD TUSSI GREAT HO was a downer, but this dated-looking film, surprisingly, enjoyed better reports than the piping hot and oven-fresh BACHNA AE HASEENO. The plexes were dull, but the side cinemas of big centres, mini-metros and smaller centres recorded better business. It was a rare case of the promos looking tacky, while the content was superior.

GOD TUSSI GREAT HO is decent in patches, but how one wishes the promotion [qualitatively] did justice to the material.

SINGH IS KINNG was the second choice this weekend, after BACHNA AE HASENO, but before GOD TUSSI GREAT HO. In the Northern belt [Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan specifically], it continued to lead. Looking at the 10-day totals, most distributors should be in the safe zone finally, despite the astronomical prices it was sold at.

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