Just like Diwali last year this years EID too would have seen two high profile releases of two big super stars colliding each other - Chennai Express & Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai Dobaara. But unlike last year there was a holiday in the following week, plus some intelligent tactics by UTV films, made OUATIMD back out from the head on fight, who would in any case be the biggest looser out of the two had they clashed.
according to sources UTV while making deals with theaters for Chennai Express is believed to have made agreements according to which theaters cannot remove their film before it completes 1 week. At that time the release date of CE was August 8th, but then out of the blue they suddenly decided to postpone the release by one day, saying 'EID falls on 9th.' This according to the ealier agreement ruins the plans of OUATIMD which is supposed to come out on August 15th, the 7th day of CE. Then UTV once again hit a master stroke by releasing CE in about 80-85% of their total screens on 8th evening (After 6pm) itself, with a tag that its just 'Paid Previews' - a release which even smaller films can't afford in full scale. So in papers CE will still be hitting 7th day only on 15th and theaters can't reduce show times or remove the film for OUATIMD, which will affect the films chances.
Now come to the present, CE has released and with over whelming reviews from masses the film has broken almost all existing opening records. The WOM is so good that now even theater owners doesn't want to replace the movie on a National Holiday, aug 15th, Independence Day. The film will reportedly get only about 1500 screens in India, about 2000 less than what CE got. So all those mentioned above have no validity anymore as its peoples demand and no longer UTV tactics that's affecting OUATIMD. As per now it looks like CE on Day 7 will NETT more than OUATIMD on its First Day
But all is not well with the OUATIMD as well, the promotion has been on the lower side, and almost invisible thanks to the extravagant promotions SRK and co did for CE. Also the songs are not yet popular, an important factor for Box Office opening. The visibility of promos, buzz is also very less for the film having 2 super heroes and one super heroine + its a sequel of a big hit too. May be the makers are very much confident with the product in hand, that they chose to under promote the movie. The movie might be a WOM hit like Aashiqui 2 & Bhaagh Milkha Baag.
Anyway we will get answers to all questions in days time.....stay tuned for more udpates
No comments:
Post a Comment