It’s another week and another spate of disappointments at the Tollywood box office. Ram’s much-publicized The Warriorr and Sai Pallavi’s courtroom drama, Gargi, released this week, and the audience’s verdict is crystal clear, ‘Not Interested!’
The Warriorr opened to decent houses, but since the talk was mixed, the film dropped and is showing no signs of improvement. After scoring two successes, Red and iSmart Shankar, The Warriorr has turned out to be a disappointment for Ram.
Sai Pallavi’s Gargi is another disaster collecting in Lakhs in Telugu states. The film is getting rave reviews from the ones who have seen it, but that appreciation isn’t translating into box office numbers.
It seems the film industry has totally lost its connection with the audience. The audience is just not stepping out of the comfort of their homes to see movies in theaters. They have become too lazy to visit a theater unless the content is as appealing and grand as RRR.
But the truth is that the industry can’t survive by making only extravagant films. It is the small and medium budget films that play a huge part in making the industry thrive. The ROI when these films become hit is bigger than the ROI on star films as the margin is much less in big films. But due to the OTT boom, the audience is ready to sit and wait for a few weeks for these movies to premiere on OTT rather than watching them in theaters.
Also, the exorbitant pricing of the movies isn’t helping. The Warriorr’s tickets are being sold at maximum rates, significantly reducing footfalls.
The trade analysts believe that the 8-week window between theatrical release and OTT premiere should help bring the theatrical business back to its optimum level.
All eyes are now on Thank You and Ramara On Duty, and the makers have to pull up their socks to increase the hype of these films to get at least a decent opening.
