With the surprising developments that have happened over the past few days, the prospects of UTV Motion Pictures’ ‘Chennai Express’ at the ticket window have suddenly brightened up manifolds. Let us analyze the whole situation in detail:
The Trend: Blocking release dates in advance has become a hot trend in the last 3 years or so. Even before the start of 2013, all the major release dates of the year were already booked by ambitious film-makers. Republic Day (Race 2), First weekend after IPL (Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewaani), Eid (Once Upon A Time In Mumbai Dobara), Gandhi Jayanti (Besharam), Diwali (Krrish 3) and Christmas (Dhoom 3) were announced well in advance.
OUATIMD – Chennai Express
SRK and Chennai Express: This left SRK’s ‘Chennai Express’ with 2 options – Either release on a non-holiday week or clash with any one of the biggies mentioned above. Any movie starring Shahrukh Khan has always been hot in the trade and is much awaited by his fans worldwide. Contrary to his last 3 releases, SRK has consciously maintained a low key profile as far as the release of ‘Chennai Express’ is concerned. Mega Release Dates for Ra.One (Diwali 2011), Don 2 (Christmas 2011) and Jab Tak Hai Jaan (Diwali 2012) were announced well in advance amidst much fanfare. Although all the 3 movies crossed 100 crores at the domestic box office, the results were not up to the standards set by King Khan himself over the past 20+ years.
Overall Impact on Trade: A clash is definitely not a wise option in the current scenario where a movie’s verdict is decided in the first weekend itself. Yes, ‘Jab Tak Hai Jaan’ and ‘Son of Sardaar’ released on the same day last year and both films did reasonably good business, but they could surely have earned much more as solo releases. The situation today cannot be compared with the times of ‘Dil vs Ghayal’, ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai vs Bade Miyan Chote Miyan’ or ‘Gadar vs Lagaan’. Hence OUATIMD makers sensibly decided in favor of everyone’s (makers, distributors, exhibitors) interest and moved their film one week forward to an Independence Day release.
Is blocking a release date required? Well partially yes, but depends on the movie. Let me illustrate this by taking examples of 2014 forthcoming bookings. Now, when a Chetan Bhagat tweets that ‘Kick’ will release on Eid 2014 or a Karan Johar tweets that ‘Shuddhi’ will come on Diwali, 2014 – it does make sense as these mass movies are eagerly awaited by all sections of the trade. Any filmmaker will have to think several times before planning a clash with the movies that are awaited worldwide. But when we hear that Christmas 2014 is blocked by Anurag Kashyap’s ‘Bombay Velvet’ or Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Bajirao Mastani’, it definitely comes as interesting news. Can they manage a wide enough release if Rajkumar Hirani’s ‘P.K.’ or Farah Khan’s ‘Happy New Year’ decide the release their film on the same day, just months in advance?
All I would say is the old saying ‘Might is Right’ holds true everywhere and if your movie has the capability to attract maximum screens worldwide, then you should have the full authority of a release date. ‘First Come First Serve’ is not the order of the day and the last-minute decision to postpone OUATIMD, even though it was announced a year in advance, proves just that.
I would love to read your views on this in the comments section below. Do bring them on!
Yes I agree “might is right” and if you decide to block a major date you need to keep yourself ready for the clash. There would always be clash because the number of films made in Bollywood are much more than the available Fridays.But these matters can be sorted out by the coordination between production houses in everybody’s benefit as it has been done by Balaji ,UTV ,and Red Chillies this time. There are not so many films which are among most awaited so atleast they should not clash with each other .
Pk and bv won’t clash as both are anushka starer. Pk might release diwali clash with suddi. Happy new year title indicate a new year release. So hny might release chrismas clash with bomby velvet. Kick will be solo release and highest grosser of 2014.
indicine
u forgot to mention srk requested balaji ,thats why they postponed it.
Yes I agree with abhishek sharma, producers shud know their films potential and its target audience before booking the release date in advance. Nowadays, big films bussines is mostly depends on weekend business, so the makers shud only block the date in advance, if the movie is out and out entertaining movie that too with a huge star. If u take the eg; of Jab tak Jaan; Ajay devgan wouldn’t even think of releasing SOS, if Jab tak hai Jaan is an out and out entertaining film. Jab tak hai Jaan is an emotional movie and his film is entertaining one, therefore, he got the courage to release his movie with sharukh khan movie. Emotional film, Thriller, Underworld film with big star won’t be a serious threat to other stars unless it’s an out n out entertaining one. If Ranbir’s Bombay velvet doesnt look like an entertaining movie then I can assure u that it wil clash with a big film for sure and will end up with huge losses
Why did SRK request Balaji to postpone their Movie,when balaji had already announced long time back only. SRK should have released his film on 15th. This shows how clever srk is .He knows that movie which will release before will get huge benefit. Balaji probably had to give in because of UTV who have a deal with single screens. Ideally it makes more sense of OUATIMA coming on EID & CE on independence day. Now OUATIMA will only benefit if CE holds no content. which has 50 /50 chance. The promo & Song of CE does not look very promising. So OUATIMA looks to benefit .Rohit shetty’s last film Bol Bachchan just managed to reach 99 or may be 100cr. CE may get the benefit of Eid & SRk factor but only initially.To get huge Box office no,Content has to be very good. which looks doubtful.
I have a feeling both movies released on same date would have been good for both. like JTHJ & SOS both trended well.
bobay valvet date should be change…..pk chritsmas suddhi diwali kick eid..no one dare to challenge this film..all this already blockbluster…ranbir ka utna star power abhi nahi he top actor ko challenge kar paye…bacha he abhi….consistency to dikhane do
well done.. precisely written .. and makes a lot of sense too.. Chennai Express is always in the top 3 releases of the year and it deserves a huge holiday weekend release..
Now that it has got one – all the current records are in danger .. which include 1st day (32) of Ek Tha Tiger and lifetime (202) of 3 Idiots also.
The surprising thing is all the predictions at the beginning of the year can rest at peace with the solo release of Chennai Express.
Now the interesting part that no one knows is – was there any agreement between SRK/UTV & Ekta to relinquish some amount of single screens to OUATIMD. If not, then Chennai Express vl definitely run for 2 weeks and OUATIMD will again be in no man’s land as Satyagraha is looking good too.
Slight correction- Srk just like a school kid being picked on in the playground went squealing to the father of the bigger kid and begged for mercy…!
Jeetendra took it upon himself to save Srk from any further humiliation and thus saved that little cry babys sinking career…! Jeetu Sir you are a big man to tell Ekta what to do but lets see now if Srk can make the most of his open week at the BO.
@boss it wasnt a request but more like “Jeetu uncle please have mercy on me and save my career…”
Ekta shouldn’t have deferred her film though but still believe strongly OUATIMD will collect more than Chennai Depress in its first week in like for like comparison.
i will be very excited if i see srk and salman films clash someday. I am sure that day full india will turn into 3rd world war place.
Next year no one clash with kick-eid, shudhi-diwali and p.k-christmas because if any one clash with these movie they destroyed and crashes all over
U all are under estimating the power of srk. Maybe from sometime he hadn’t given any blockbuster but u all should keep in mind he had given everything original and never had given same type of movies. Salman always do action movies and thus, creating records. Lets come to aamir he is perfectionist then y talaash failed to cross 100 crores. Niw u ll say that it was thriller than u must know jab tak hai jaan is only the romantic film that crossed 100 crore and that too with clash. So, wait n watch i guarantee u CE will cross 150 Crores because it’s srk first mass movie (Y) Well haters again will dislike this best of luck to SRK .. !!
@Navin & @Tina
SRK did not requested Jeetu sir.He just thanked them.
ce collection 1st day 35cr 2ndday 22cr 3rd day 29 cr mon 12cr tues 10 cr wed 8 cr thus 12 cr fri 10 sat 11 sun 12 total ten day 161lifetime185to190 cr
All I would say is the old saying ‘Might is Right’ holds true everywhere and if your movie has the capability to attract maximum screens worldwide, then you should have the full authority of a release date. ‘First Come First Serve’ is not the order of the day and the last-minute decision to postpone OUATIMD, even though it was announced a year in advance, proves just that.
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