The box office failure of Bade Miyan Chhote Miyan and Maidaan, two high-profile competition releases from Bollywood, has had a cascading impact on the exhibition sector, say theatre homeowners impacted by the poor displaying of the flicks.
Bade Miyan... and Maidaan, starring huge stars like Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff and Ajay Devgn, respectively, launched throughout the competition of Eid, a historically good interval for theatrical releases, however did not dwell as much as expectations.
Bihar-based exhibitor Vishek Chauhan mentioned the scenario is “alarming” within the first and second quarter of the monetary yr. “An exhibitor earns money when a film runs houseful. Almost 90 per cent of the business is down. This year has been a complete washout. Exhibitors are in red. The cost of running a cinema hall daily comes to around Rs 30,000. To just break even, we need sales of Rs 1 lakh but currently the sales are ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 15,000. So, you can imagine what the situation is like,” Chauhan advised PTI.
Not simply these two releases, the primary quarter of the yr noticed big-budget films comparable to Fighter and Yodha additionally carry out poorly. According to Chauhan, Fighter no less than had a great opening within the vary of Rs 25 to Rs 27 crore.
He mentioned Eid, usually seen as a worthwhile interval within the trade, has turned out to be “disastrous” as a result of failure of Bade Miyan Chote Miyan and Maidaan. The festive interval is mostly related to a Salman Khan launch however the celebrity did not have something lined up this yr.
“Eid was a disaster compared to last year. We’ve never had such a bad response during Eid, except in 2022, when we had Tiger Shroff (Heropanti 2) and Ajay Devgn’s films (Runway 34) release,” he added.
According to box office tracking website Sacnilk, Bade Miyan..., reportedly made on a budget of over Rs 300 crore, has earned Rs 72 crore gross in India. Similarly, Maidaan, made at a reported budget of over Rs 200 crore, earned Rs 51 crore (gross) in India.
Akshay Rathi, who owns theatres in central India, says big-ticket movies, unlike last year which saw hits such as Pathaan, Jawan, Gadar 2 and Animal, have not fared well at the box office.
“Business has been drastically down. It is hard to measure in numbers. Compared to final yr, it has been a ruthlessly unhealthy situation. Content, on the whole, has not been compelling sufficient for the viewers to look at. Any movie that has good content material, be it Shaitaan or Laapataa Ladies, viewers has come for them. We have to get inventive in the best way we put out content material,” Rathi advised PTI.
Chauhan fears the scenario will proceed to be “grim” in the second quarter, despite summer vacation. “This is a profitable interval to launch movies and it is being mentioned that movies should not releasing due to elections. I consider Bollywood producers are afraid of the box office. The scenario is grim due to the poor efficiency of movies this yr, together with the 2 disastrous Eid releases. It exhibits, regardless of having stars, budgets, festive dates, films have tanked. In such a situation, cinemas are struggling,” he added.
Leading exhibitor and distributor Sunny Chandiramani, who runs 20 screens throughout Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, mentioned the scenario is so unhealthy that he’s considering of shutting down a number of the screens.
“Everyone is dealing with losses throughout the nation, possibly rather less within the South as regional movies are doing nicely. We usually say content material is king however my remark is that the content material isn’t good in Bollywood. Star energy is (additionally) not working,” Chandiramani told PTI.
“We are awaiting the discharge of the Marathi movie Nach Ga Ghuma, which is on May 1. If that movie performs nicely, we are going to proceed our operations. If not, we are going to shut down 10 cinemas out of the 20 from May 7. This week, we’re shutting down one display screen out of the 2 in our multiplex,” he added.
Manoj Desai, the executive director of Mumbai’s iconic Gaiety Galaxy, also lamented the lacklustre run of movies at the box office, compared to last year.
“2023 was an ideal yr for Bollywood and exhibitors however 2024 has been uninteresting. We by no means thought Bade Miyan Chote Miyan and Maidaan wouldn’t do nicely. Ajay Devgn is an motion hero, folks like watching him within the Singham franchise and Drishyam films. People did not like each the movies,” Desai mentioned.
Smaller movies like Shaitaan, Laapataa Ladies, Madgaon Express and Crew did nicely, he added. “Fighter was a beautiful film but not many people came to watch it. I believe that it has been an overdose of war movies.” It is a wait-and-watch situation for Chauhan, who hopes to extend the footfall in cinemas by lowering ticket costs.
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“We barely have 20 or 25 folks in a present. We’ve decreased the ticket costs from Rs 150 to Rs 100 so that individuals come to theatres. I’ll not shut down the cinema halls. We’ll handle in some way to run content material from different languages or Hollywood like The Fall Guy (May 3), Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (May 10), or a small movie like Srikanth (May 10). We will take our possibilities with these movies,” he added.
The exhibitors have now pinned their hope on movies such as the Prabhas, Deepika Padukone and Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Kalki 2898 AD, Kabir Khan’s Chandu Champion with Kartik Aaryan, Devara starring Jr NTR’s, Pushpa 2 fronted by Allu Arjun, the Ram Charan-led Game Changer, and Kamal Haasan’s Indian 2.
“Small movies, this yr, have carried out the numbers however they’ve carried out nicely in a most of 20 cities. A giant film tends to do nicely past the metro cities. We want big-ticket films to do nicely for the exhibition sector. We have Chandu Champion, Indian 2, Kalki… (Hope) issues will change,” Rathi added.