Last month, Bollywood seemed to have had a reverse Balbenheimer moment. The double feature of Bade Miyan Chote Miyan starring Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff and Maidaan starring Ajay Devgn was released to coincide with the Eid festival on April 10 and 11, and it looked like it would put an end to this year's lackluster box office performance. However, the results fell far short of the lofty expectations that had been placed on both films. And the impact of this major setback will be felt even in May, when the scorching heat of summer means there are no summer blockbusters at all. (Also read – Crew, Lapataa Ladies: Why some female-led films will be box office successes while others will have to wait for Netflix)
But the lack of exciting blockbusters isn't just down to past failures. Naag Ashwin's much-awaited sci-fi blockbuster “Kalki 2898 AD” has had its release postponed to the end of June due to heavy post-production work. This gap between blockbusters has also given a chance to mid-budget films. Rajkumar Rao's “Srikanth”, Manoj Bajpayee's “Bhaiyya Ji”, Divya Khosla's “Savi”, “Chhota Bheem and the Curse of Damayan” and Rajkumar and Janhvi Kapoor's “Mr & Mrs Mahi” got ample opportunity to prove their worth at the box office without any competition from big films.
Summer vacation blues
Srikanth and Bhaiya Ji have been moderately successful at the box office but their track and penetration are limited. ₹It grossed 35 million rupees in the first two weeks of its release. ₹1 crore, but Growth is concentrated India has not seen any hits in Uttar Pradesh and parts of Bihar, with Manoj Bajpai enjoying a strong following on the solo screen. No film has been a pan-Indian hit this month, or even last month. The only film I can think of that has made at least a small splash at the box office is “Crew,” which released at the end of March and starred Kareena Kapoor, Tabu and Kriti Sanon.
No solid imports
With schools now on summer vacation, parents are looking for wholesome entertainers to bond with the family at cinemas, especially in Delhi-NC, where the heatwave brought the holidays forward. With Bollywood on summer hiatus, the usual Hollywood staples are also yet to hit theatres this season. Though films like The Fall Guy, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, If, and Mad Max 2 received mostly positive reviews when they were released, the cinema attendance numbers have not reached the level of summer blockbusters, especially after Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer and Greta Gerwig's Barbie pushed the envelope of event films across the globe.
Southern Summer
Even the southern film industries – Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada – have not produced any big blockbusters. Kollywood started the month on a good note with Aranmanai 4, a horror comedy directed by Sunderl C and starring Tamannaah Bhatia, which raked in box office sales. But since then, box office numbers have been just as dire as Mollywood's. After a string of impressive films like Manjumel Boys and Aavesham earlier this year, Malayalam cinema has once again produced big-budget flops, with Mammootty's Turbo in May. Sandalwood and Tollywood have neither a flagship blockbuster in the pipeline nor are they even trying this month.
Heat waves: more harm than good
In an interview with Deccan Chronicle, veteran Telugu film impresario Suresh Babu explained why he was forced to close theatres in Telangana. “Usually, summer is a safe time for producers and impresarios as audiences enter theatres and enjoy the coolness of air-conditioning to avoid the scorching heat outside. But this summer has been awful with only four-five audiences in theatres,” Babu said. Clearly, audiences have not taken the bait of air-conditioned distractions this summer. In fact, the heatwave has prevented potential audiences from even stepping out of their homes to travel to the nearest theatre. It just isn't worth it.
Work-from-home alternatives
Just because we are not visiting cinemas does not mean we cannot enjoy movies. Cinema audiences seem to be turning to far more accessible and cost-effective options like watching films released months ago on OTT, catching up on the much-anticipated Netflix India Original “Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar” or scrolling through Reels on their Instagram feeds. There are also some seasonal distractions. The Indian Premier League broadcasts two matches every day, including weekends, taking up half of a typical viewer’s day. It is also election season, with political campaigns turning into a carnival and generating far more debate in homes, offices and residential areas than in the cinema.
Desperate incentives like ticket value ₹Campaigns like Rs.99 and buy one get one free may have been a knee-jerk attempt to revive cinema footfall. Re-releases of past blockbuster films are also a corrective rather than a sustainable measure. Thanks to marketing tools like unlimited popcorn and cold drinks, PVR-INOX has emerged as a food giant, with its F&B revenue surpassing that of cinema, its traditional mode of business. While this may suggest that people are coming to cinemas to consume, let us admit that they may only be doing so because they are constrained. Once inside the cinema, one has no choice but to eat what PVR-INOX serves. But going to cinemas remains a choice, and this summer that choice is not being made. With the IPL and elections over in a few weeks and the heatwaves subsiding nicely, June-July may bring the box office rains that moviegoers crave.
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