After Aamir Khan-starrer Laal Singh Chaddha and Akshay Kumar’s Raksha Bandhan failed at the box office, movie exhibitors still had hope for Liger to be fun and bring back the audience but it also failed to attract cine lovers. Even Anurag Kashyap’s thriller Dobaaraa and the Hollywood film Nope were also unsuccessful to grab the attention of the audience. As the result, several theatre owners have decided to partially close the screens or reduced the shows already until the release of Brahmastra, as per the report by Bollywood Hungama.
An insider from the exhibition sector told the portal that when most films are not performing, it becomes difficult to keep so many screens operational. The source also mentioned that many theatres cannot shut down screens as they have got the ad revenues for the week. “So this week, they have reduced the number of shows per screen. From Friday, September 2, some multiplexes will close down some screens for the week.”
A film exhibitor named Akshaye Rathi explained the two ways to stay in the green are either increasing the income or reducing the expenses. “While movies aren’t doing well and big-ticket movies aren’t coming up till the release of Brahmastra on September 9, a lot of exhibitors are finding different ways to go through such lean patches by minimizing expenses,” he told Bollywood Hungama.
He also said that he is hopeful that Brahmastra will get the audience back in the cinemas in big numbers.
The executive director of Mumbai’s Gaiety-Galaxy, Manoj Desai also said that there are no films that are performing well. “Even next week, there’s no film. I’ll have to see what to do and whether I should keep both Gaiety and Galaxy shut till September 9,” he was quoted as saying by the publication.
However, CEO of Cinepolis India Devang Sampat said that ups and downs are very common and it’s happening across the globe. He continued and said that the manpower is fixed and so is their rental and the only thing they save is electricity. “But the electricity cost is such that it’s not feasible to play a show if less than 10 tickets are sold. However, we always have more than ten patrons in each show,” he added. He also said that he doesn’t believe in “canceling shows” but in “continuing exhibiting content.”
Devang even opined about Brahmastra and stated that the line-up of the films looks quite strong.
Ayan Mukherji’s directorial Brahmastra features Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Amitabh Bachchan, Mouni Roy, and Nagarjuna Akkineni. It is set to hit cinemas on September 9.
