How were film got affected during the pandemic?
In 2020, when the global pandemic Covid-19 was on a high, everything was closed.
People were not allowed to get out.
Life come to halt when nothing was working anywhere.
Because of the national shutdown, one of the hits was Cinemas.
The Theatre business was not working. The film started getting released on the OTT platform.
Post-pandemic cinema halls opened and markets had also started working.
But the release of movies on digital platforms continued.
Now the filmmakers have decided that the movies will be released in OTT only after the completion of 8 weeks in cinema theatres.
Directors decided to follow the 4-week rule so that the producers could compensate for their loss by releasing early online due to lower revenue at the box office.
Now the movies have been doing better at the box office for the last few months with 100% occupancy.
Many big-budget movies are doing good and making good profits.
So, the directors have decided to follow the 8-week rule before the online release.
From 1st August 2022, movies will be released online only after 8- weeks from the theatre release.
That means all the movies starting from Raksha Bandhan, Laal Singh Chadha, and Brahmastra will release online only after 8weeks of theatre release.
Devang Sampat, the CEO, of Cinepolis India, has confirmed and said, “There was no rule as such. It was an understanding between the producers and exhibitors (due to the unusual circumstances). But now, the producers themselves have reached out to us and stressed the exclusivity window for theatrical release”.
Films like Kashmir Files, Jug Jugg Jeeyo, Bhool Bhulaiyaa2, RRR, and KGF Chapter- 2 have done good business getting released in theatres.
By this, we can see that the movie business is coming on track.
Due to movies getting released in OTT, people have started thinking why wasting money in cinema halls when the cinema will be released online very soon.
This mentality needs to be changed. Things need to be on a regular track like before the pandemic.
Like we say, rebuilding the habit of those audiences wanting to watch movies in the theatre.
More movies released in cinema halls will benefit producers.
Movies like Shaadi Mein Zarur Aana(2017) stars Rajkumar Rao and Vikram Bhatt’s horror movie 1921(2018) faced a tough time during their release.
Kangana Ranaut’s Thalaaivi(2021) had a deal with Netflix. It was released online within two weeks of theatre release.
Now the question is whether the movie will never be allowed to release online?
According to Akshaye Rathi, “It’s not like they won’t be allowed. They are the producers and it’s their copyright. On a case-to-case basis, depending on the cost-benefit analysis of the particular film, the producers and exhibitors will take a call. And forget about exhibitors in general. It is every exhibition chain’s call. PVR will take its own call and so will Inox, Cinepolis, Miraj, etc. Even single-screen cinemas will take their call. We have seen in the past where certain release plans of producers didn’t suit the exhibitors and they chose not to play. The others did”.
