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Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff’s Bade Miyan Chote Miyan and Ajay Devgn’s Maidaan have been struggling at the box office ever since they released in theatres on the occasion of Eid, April 11. Both big-budget extravaganzas which were front-loaded with stars, the films were supposed to lift Bollywood out of its stupor given their festive release.
However, now the poor performance of both these films and no films releasing during the upcoming election has made the survival of theatres, especially the single screens, difficult, with many downing their shutters temporarily , suggests a report.
Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, directed by filmmaker Ali Abbas Zafar, popular for helming Salman Khan starrers like Tiger Zinda Hai and Bharat, was mounted on an estimated budget of Rs 350 crore. Amit Sharma’s Maidaan, backed by Boney Kapoor, too was made on a humongous budget of Rs 250 crore. After 13 days at the box office, Bade Miyan Chote Miyan has made an estimated Rs 56 crore nett in India while Maidaan collection stood at Rs 36.3 crores.
Reports suggest that several exhibitors and theatre owners had no choice but to slash the number of shows as well as ticket prices to attract the audiences to the empty theatres.
Slashing ticket prices is the last resort of exhibitors to attract the audiences. For instance, Rajeev Cinema in Agra has slashed ticket prices from Rs 80-100 to Rs 30-50. Joginder Mahajan, distributor and general secretary of the Motion Pictures Association in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, was quoted by Bollywood Hungama as saying, “They used to charge Rs. 50 and Rs. 80 normally and Rs. 80 and Rs. 100 for blockbuster films. They had to resort to price cut as enough films are not releasing. And if films are releasing, they are not attracting the public.”
Vishek Chauhan, a Bihar based exhibitor and owner of Roopbani Cinema in Purnia told the publication, “So many exhibitors are calling up and asking me, ‘Should we shut down for two months?’. Kharche kahan se niklenge (How do we manage the expenses)? At least, the theatres would save on the electricity bill by shutting down.” He added that only 20-30 people are showing up per show, forcing theatres to reduce the number of shows.
Film exhibitor and distributor Akshaye Rathi confirmed the same. “Since not enough films are releasing, exhibitors are trying to optimize the operational costs by reducing the number of shows. With every show running, you need to keep the AC on, and it adds to your bill. Hence, these steps are being taken because, without content, it doesn’t make sense to run cinemas and add to losses.”
After the release of Aayush Sharma’s Ruslaan on April 26, there are no films releasing during the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Vikrant Massey’s The Sabarmati Report, which was originally slated to release in May will now release in August after facing censor issues. Rajkummar Rao’s Srikanth and Deepak Tijori’s Tipppsy arrive on May 10 while Manoj Bajpayee’s Bhaiyya Ji will try its luck on May 24. With hardly any big films releasing in the coming month, theatre owners are now considering downing their shutters for a couple of months to cut cost.
Theatres like Mumbai’s iconic Maratha Mandir, Gaiety Galaxy and Eros cinema are reportedly shutting down for at least a week or two. They have also slashed ticket prices considerably and have done away with morning shows. If no film manages to work in the subsequent weeks, cinemas will be forced down to scale down operations.
Vishek, along with other exhibitors is not happy with decision-makers in the Hindi film industry to not release films this election season. Vishek said, “So during elections, do people just watch election-related news all day? Would they not watch films at all?” Rathi, on the other hand rued, “There are no significant releases this week or the next week. I don’t understand the logic of the film industry. They claim that films would not work right now. On what basis can they say that?”
While Bade Miyan Chote Miyan and Maidaan have completed over two weeks run at the box office, last week’s films Do Aur Do Pyaar and Dibakar Banerjee’s LSD 2 are also struggling at the box office. Holdover films like Kunal Kemmu’s Madgaon Express, Tabu, Kareena Kapoor and Kriti Sanon’s Crew and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire continue to perform well but these films have almost exhausted their run in cinema halls, leaving theatre owners with no films to showcase for the next two weeks.
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