The industry got a jolt over the weekend due to the underperformance of the much-awaited film, 83. Despite terrific word of mouth, the interest level among the viewers was very limited and this was reflected in the collections. Its opening day was low at Rs. 12.64 crore. One still expected a jump on Saturday as it was the day of Christmas. However, the jump was marginal and the second-day earnings were Rs. 16.95 crore. The Sunday jump, too, was missing. The film collected Rs. 17.41 crore on day 3 and thus the weekend collections stand at Rs. 47 crore. The Monday collections continue to be strong in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, etc but elsewhere, the film is struggling to find audiences.
Bollywood Hungama has now found out that the shows of 83 have been replaced in many centres with that of the last week’s releases, the Hollywood blockbuster Spider-Man: No Way Home and Allu Arjun’s Telugu film dubbed in Hindi, Pushpa: The Rise – Part 01. Both the films are running successfully and despite the competition from 83, it managed to find audiences.
A trade expert on the condition of anonymity told Bollywood Hungama, “On an all-India level, around 10-15% of ‘83’s shows have been discontinued. The response to the film over the weekend was not encouraging at all. In some centres, it did 1/4th business of Pushpa: The Rise – Part 01.”
The Friday Cinema in Surat is a case in point. This three-screen multiplex ran 9 shows of 83 and 5 shows of Pushpa: The Rise – Part 01 on Friday. On Saturday, the management brought down the number of shows of 83 to 7. On Sunday, it was reduced to 3 shows and from Monday, they plan to run 4 shows of the film in a day.
Kiritbhai T Vaghasia, the owner of The Friday Cinema, said, “On Sunday, all the shows of Pushpa: The Rise – Part 01 were house full. 83 meanwhile hasn’t found many takers. One afternoon show of 83 ran to a full house on Sunday. It’s Monday morning right now and not a single ticket of the shows of 83 has been sold yet. The evening shows of Pushpa: The Rise – Part 01, meanwhile, are almost full.”
In Bihar, certain single-screens have re-released Pushpa: The Rise – Part 01 in their properties. Kishan Damani, the distributor of the Allu Arjun starrer in Bihar, revealed, “4 cinemas removed 83 and replaced it with Pushpa: The Rise – Part 01. One of them decided to make the change on Friday itself.”
Trade analyst Taran Adarsh said, “I am not aware (about reduction of the shows). But it’s a normal practice for multiplexes to reduce the show of a particular film and replace it with that of a film that is doing better.” He added, “The film comes with a heavy price tag and its numbers have been a disappointment for the industry. Post-Sooryavanshi, Spider-Man: No Way Home and Pushpa: The Rise – Part 01, one expected another success in the form of 83. However, the collections have proved to be a setback.”
In agreement, Akshaye Rathi, film exhibitor, and distributor, opined, “In general, programming works on the law of demand and supply. Purely based on how many people want to buy tickets for a film do programmers schedule the shows of a movie. Irrespective of which week or which movie, the idea of the multiplexes is obviously to maximize the footfalls. I am not sure what’s happening on 83 as it is a bit too early to take a call on that.”
Raj Bansal, the owner of Entertainment Paradise in Jaipur, meanwhile, stated, “As per my knowledge, shows haven’t been replaced. If it has happened in a handful of places, it’s an exception and not a norm. The film is doing well but not as per expectations. From the beginning, I was always expecting an opening of Rs. 14-15 crore and a weekend of Rs. 50 crore. An actor like Ranveer Singh collecting around Rs. 15 crore is a feat. The music of the film is poor, Deepika Padukone is in a cameo while even the supporting cast is not exciting. Moreover, director Kabir Khan’s films are always hatke; he never makes commercial films. However, after the producers showed the film to several media houses, a lot of reviews came in and the perception was made that it’ll collect Rs. 25 crore on day 1 and have a weekend of Rs. 100 crore. As a result, it fell short of the expectations of the trade.”
An exhibitor from Nawalgarh, Rajasthan, agreed to this notion as he said, “It is the collective intelligence failure of the industry, journalists, programmers, critics etc. When I saw the film, I wondered if it is the same movie that was seen by the critics. We had dreamt of Rs. 300 crore business after reading the reviews. Almost every critic wrote that cinema halls would become stadiums. A lot of exhibitors got tempted. Kyunki stadium mein kam se kam 100 log toh hote hi hai.” He said that the film is not bad but “at best, it is a docu-drama”.
A major factor that went against the film is the pricing. Atul Mohan explained, “Times have changed. The public will be able to afford just one film a month. They’ll choose the best film out of the lot. Last month, most of them saw Sooryavanshi. This was a time when many must have got their bonus and it was also the Diwali period. This month, viewers saw Spider-Man: No Way Home and Pushpa: The Rise – Part 01. Most of them can’t be expected to go back to cinemas even this week, especially with such sky-high ticket prices.” When asked if he believes that 83 would have collected more if the ticket prices were lesser, he replied, “Definitely.”
83’s loss is Spider-Man and Pushpa’s gain as both films continued to do well. Vishek Chauhan, owner of Roopbani Cinema in Bihar, who didn’t play 83 in his theatre, said, “I played 1 show of Pushpa: The Rise – Part 01 in Week 1. It collected Rs. 1.90 lakhs in the first week and recorded 100% occupancy throughout the week. In the second week, I am now running two shows of the film. Today (Monday), it’ll cross the first-week figures. The second-week figure would be at least Rs. 3 lakhs. We’ll continue Pushpa: The Rise – Part 01 in the third week too.” He added, “As for Spider-Man: No Way Home, it will outgross Sooryavanshi in my cinema very soon.”
Even Jersey, scheduled to release this Friday, will be at an advantage. With such collections, the trade and industry are now waiting if 83 would at least be able to cross the Rs. 100 crore mark. Atul Mohan predicted, “83 will not even collect Rs. 83 crore.” The Nawalgarh exhibitor signed off by saying, “Balwinder Singh has a dialogue in the film, ‘Ek baar 100 (run) ho jaaye na, toh thodi baat izzat reh jaayegi’. The ‘83 makers must be wishing for the same…‘ki kaise bhi karke bas 100 crore ho jaaye’.”