Cinema theatre owners across the country are facing intense pressure from film distributors of Singham Again and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 to host more shows for their movies, according to an Economic Times report which cited industry executives.
This is not just in metros, but also in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, with box-office collection estimates for the films to be around ₹1,000 crore, according to the report.
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“Single-screen theatre owners are facing a tough dilemma when it comes to allocating shows between these two films,” the report quoted Anil Bohra, owner of City Light, a single-screen theatre in Palanpur, Gujarat, as saying.
Bohra added that the box-office potential of these two films could even possibly get diminished since they’ll be released on the same day.
A more pressing issue is that exhibitors cannot afford to upset the distributors of both films, the report quoted independent film distributor and trade analyst Shaaminder Malik as saying.
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However, multiplexes with five screens at least can easily allocate sufficient space and showtimes for both the films and distributors are unlikely to see major losses in multiplexes, the report cited a person who did not wish to be identified, as saying.
India has a total of 9,742 cinema screens with 25-26% of them being multiplexes, according to the report which cited the 2024 FICCI-EY media and entertainment report.
Singham Again is distributed by PVR Inox Pictures, which also is related to the operations of 1,747 screens across India. Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 on the other hand is being distributed by the Anil Thadani-owned AA Films.
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