The Hindu Business Line : Crowds throng multiplexes as swine flu fears take backseat

Mumbai, Aug 17 Big ticket releases in Mumbai missed the extended three-day weekend rush with movie-halls closed for swine flu, but once they were thrown open to the public on Monday, the crowds surged the counters.

Last week, the Maharasthra Government directed multiplexes and single screen movie-halls to close for three days.

“Kaminey has seen strong box office collections across locations. With the opening up of multiplexes in Mumbai on Monday, we have seen the expected rush in advance bookings and expect the strong response to continue throughout the week and the coming weekend,” said Mr Tushar Dhingra, COO, BIG Cinemas.

Box office collections

According to Mr Devang Sampat, Senior VP, Cinemax, Kaminey saw around 60-70 per cent occupancy levels while for Life Partner it was around 40-50 per cent.

The opening weekend box office collections for the UTV-promoted Kaminey is already around Rs 33 crore worldwide, while for Life Partner (from Studio 18) it is around Rs 6.25 crore in India.

Mr Aman Gill, Studio 18 Director - Distribution said, “Our opening weekend collections are as per expectations. If Mumbai and Pune were opened during the weekend, we would have done a net business of Rs 8.35 crore.”

For an industry that has already had a bad first quarter, Kaminey and Life Partner may do the trick in boosting its fortunes. Both movies were expected to shore up revenues for the second quarter. “Mumbai is a huge market contributing almost 20 per cent. Filmmakers and the box office missed out on three public holidays — Janmashtami, Independence Day and a Sunday — when a chunk of the audience would have made a beeline for the movie-halls,” Mr Taran Adarsh, trade analyst, said.

Typically, occupancies on such weekends are 90-95 per cent compared to normal weekends, when it hovers around 75-80 per cent, said Mr Sampat.