After a chaotic release of the Rohit Shetty cop universe film Sooryavanshi starring Akshay Kumar, history seems to be repeating itself, this time around for the Kabir Khan directorial, 83 with Ranveer Singh in lead. According to sources, there is a lot of drama happening in the exhibition circuit and the discussion so far spells trouble for Ranveer Singh’s 83.
“Reliance Entertainment has demanded 100% showcasing at all single screens from their sports drama, 83, from December 24 and a higher share of shows in the multiplexes too with maximum prime time shows. However, the single screen owners are spoilt for choices, as due to the unprecedented hype around Spider-Man,” a source informed Bollywood Hungama, adding further, “The cinema owners all across feel that it would be unfair to scale down the showcasing of Spider-Man by a huge margin in the second week, as the week one business will be nothing but historic. While they are ready to give maximum showcasing to 83, they feel, Spiderman too will retain a substantial amount of shows.”
The single-screen owners on the other hand have completely refused to bow down. An exhibitor on condition of anonymity informed Bollywood Hungama, “Reliance Entertainment spoilt our Diwali by fighting till the end. We eventually agreed on all their demands. But this time around, we are willing to showcase films based on merit. Spider-Man: No Way Home will be doing record numbers in the first week. How can they expect us to completely remove the film in its second week and allot all shows to 83? We won’t bow down to their demands. The entire cine owner association is on the same page and not willing to leave Spider-Man: No Way Home in the second week for 83. We will allot showcasing based on merits and box office numbers.”
Even the national chains outside of PVR (which is a producer partner of 83), are not so keen to accept all demands of the team 83. “They can’t suddenly remove Spiderman from the prime time shows. Yes, 83 is a big film and it will get preference in showcasing. But expecting to get 80% to 90% of the prime time shows is an unreasonable demand,” the source added.
In a nutshell, the showcasing of 83 is already facing the heat and if things are not sorted soon, this will make a major dent in the opening of the film too. Delayed advance didn’t create much of an impact on Sooryavanshi as the spot bookings were huge due to the holiday factor with no competition, but this time around, the film is arriving on a non-holiday with big competition in the form of Spider-Man standing right in front in its second week. Basically, the two demands of Reliance – No show sharing with Spider-Man: No Way Home on single screens and maximum primetime shows in national chains has not gone down well with the exhibition section and a thing that’s given at the moment is the showcasing for this Kabir Khan directorial won’t be as high as one expected it to be around 2 weeks back.
Till then, it’s all wait and watch as the game will just intensify going forward.