*Baby*
Age: 124
Total Posts: 190
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Location:
United States, United States
No Entry is a hit!!
A producer facing financial problems hours/days before the release of his film is not new. The last-minute tensions have always existed. But with the industry on the road to transparency and the Indian media getting more and more aggressive with each passing day [the journos are trying to outdo each other when it comes to breaking news!], the industry dealings are no longer confined to the industry limits. They are out in the open, in dailies, tabloids, weeklies… making television headlines after every one hour.
The uncertainty over the release of Boney Kapoor's biggie NO ENTRY made big news. That the film wouldn't make it to theatres on August 26 spread like wild fire, even as Boney was involved in serious discussions with his creditors. There was panic within the industry. The distributors weren't sure whether the film would reach theatres. The exhibitors [movieplexes] were completely clueless as well.
As a result, when the delivery of prints commenced from Wednesday night/Thursday morning, the industry realized that the film would make it in the scheduled week, although the prints wouldn't reach everywhere on Friday.
That's precisely what happened!
The prints of NO ENTRY didn't reach major centres of the country till Saturday, a fact that was highlighted on all news channels. So much so that Anil Kapoor was forced to call a hurried press conference on Friday afternoon to present things in the right perspective: The film had been released in some parts of the country and that the remaining theatres would be able to screen the film by Friday night/Saturday.
But the harm had been done by then. Confused that the release had been cancelled/called off, not many people sauntered into a movieplex to watch NO ENTRY on Friday. You may find this unbelievable, but the Friday collections of a biggie like NO ENTRY ranged between 30%-50% almost everywhere. The dull opening of NO ENTRY did catch the industry unawares, although everyone agreed that it had everything to do with the confusing signals sent out [vis-à-vis its release], not its merits.
Saturday onwards, the film gathered momentum and by Saturday evening, the verdict was loud and clear: NO ENTRY had stormed into people's hearts.
There's no denying that the cancellation of shows and the uncertainty took a heavy toll on its box-office takings in its opening weekend at several places, but what went in its favor was the fact that the moviegoers were truly enjoying the film. Had the Friday reports been negative, NO ENTRY would've sunk on Friday night itself. Fortunately, the strong reports pouring in from everywhere gave hope to its distributors and exhibitors.
Although most films crash Monday onwards, NO ENTRY has been rock-steady. The film has been grossing 80% + collections almost everywhere, which is a rarity these days.
