Can superhero turn game around for single screens?

Rubbishing rumours that Gaiety-Galaxy has shut down after back-to-back duds, owner says he is counting on Ranbir-Alia’s Brahmastra to end dry spell

Those staying in the Bandra-Andheri stretch will tell you how Friday movie nights mean a quick drive to Gaiety-Galaxy, Bandra’s popular single-screen theatre. For actors and filmmakers too, G7 Cinemas has long become the yardstick of their movies’ mass appeal. Naturally then, recent rumours of the movie hall shutting down sent shockwaves across the industry and among cinephiles. Reports stated that following the poor performance of Aamir Khan’s Laal Singh Chaddha, Akshay Kumar’s Raksha Bandhan, Liger and Dobaaraa, Manoj Desai — executive director of G7 Cinemas — decided to temporarily bring down the curtain on Gaiety. However, when mid-day contacted Desai, he rubbished the rumours. “The theatre is fully functional,” he asserted, although admitting that the past two-and-a-half years have been hard on the Bandra hotspot.

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Single-screen theatres across the country have been struggling to stay afloat since the pandemic-induced lockdowns. While exhibitors hoped that things would improve this year, Bollywood has not seen a hit besides Gangubai Kathiawadi and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2. Desai laments, “Nothing after Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 has worked. The running cost of the theatre is so humongous that if a show is selling less than 15 tickets, it’s not worth it. Now, all our hopes are pinned on Brahmastra. We will run the film across all screens of Gaiety-Galaxy. The film will be allotted three screens at Maratha Mandir as well.”

Manoj Desai

While exhibitors are counting on Ranbir Kapoor-Alia Bhatt’s ambitious superhero project to turn the tide, single-screen theatre owners are at a disadvantage. In an unusual move, distributors enabled multiplexes across the country to open Brahmastra’s advance bookings on Friday, since they bring higher revenue. The benefit hasn’t been extended to single screens, which will open their booking windows only today. As per early trends, the three multiplex chains — PVR Cinemas, INOX and Cinepolis — have sold around 50,000 tickets, of which over 30,000 are for the opening day.

Desai is perturbed by the discrimination. “The multiplexes get an upper hand. Such politics has to end. I don’t see a problem if single screens and multiplexes start advance bookings together. That said, we have 2,000 seats [across the two theatres], and are expecting massive bookings despite September 9 being Anant Chaturdashi.”

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