Oh.. thanks. That means it was not running at all in Edison Big Cinemas hall? Interesting to see that a star movie not getting screened in Edison area where there is more indian population.
It was screened last weekend for sure. Not this weekend, unfortunately. Now that I am free I would have fancied myself enjoying some time watching Rajini, ARR's music etc. That is not to be now, however. Looking forward to January 9, when "I" is supposed to release.
What is there to troll? I live very close to Big Cinemas of Edison. For me, living so far away from my birth state, any good Tamil movie will give goosebumps and enjoyment. I was unable to watch last weekend because of work pressure, being that time of the year for the universities. I watched Enthiran three or four years ago at Edison after four weeks! It was running for that long, so assumed that Lingaa would do at least half that time. However, even on Wednesday, Google indicated only 8:45 show at Big Cinemas. As for watching it at other centers, I am not that crazy when the WoM indicates an average movie (such as by Bosskey: Instead of being a damn good movie, it is just a good dam movie). Same as Kaaviya Thalaivan which got mixed reviews and I dropped the idea of watching it!
This year I watched Kaththi (Because of the Murugadoss factor, but felt somewhat deflated after watching) and Jigirthanda (felt good after watching) at Big Cinemas. That will give you an idea of my interest levels in watching movies at cinema halls.
Will watch I (if and) when it releases on Jan 9th.
Enthiran was released only in half the amount of screens across US.
So yeah the business model has changed. Instead of length now it is the breadth.
When 3 Idiots ran 5 weeks, it was kind of unexpected because even by that time, Bollywood already depended on carpet bombing multiplexes and netting as many viewers as possible in the opening weekend. So any run of over 2 weeks would be considered amazing. And Avatar had the longest run of a Hollywood movie in India after maybe Titanic.
So, if the audience is enthused and turning up in big numbers, theater owners won't take off the film. It is impossible to conceive that the hype factor in a Rajni film could be low but maybe that is what happened. I did feel the buzz was very low in the run up to Linga's release. And once the numbers didn't (ostensibly) live up to theaters' expectations in the first few days, they may have panicked. Rajini may have a huge loyal following but his films must still be promoted in the way they are today in order to be commercially successful. The anticipation towards PK has been building up steadily in the last month or so and even before that, they kept planting stories in the media to stoke audience interest. On Friday, it was next to impossible to get tickets. I have decided to wait for the Christmas week to watch it and I am pretty confident it will run a second week.
Maybe using so much hype and promotion is a cynical way to do the movie business but in that case, Superstar also shouldn't demand supernormal acting fees. If you don't want to play the hype game, then keep it low key and cheap so that it is easier for the distributors and theater owners to make money on the film.
When 3 Idiots ran 5 weeks, it was kind of unexpected because even by that time, Bollywood already depended on carpet bombing multiplexes and netting as many viewers as possible in the opening weekend. So any run of over 2 weeks would be considered amazing. And Avatar had the longest run of a Hollywood movie in India after maybe Titanic.
So, if the audience is enthused and turning up in big numbers, theater owners won't take off the film. It is impossible to conceive that the hype factor in a Rajni film could be low but maybe that is what happened. I did feel the buzz was very low in the run up to Linga's release. And once the numbers didn't (ostensibly) live up to theaters' expectations in the first few days, they may have panicked. Rajini may have a huge loyal following but his films must still be promoted in the way they are today in order to be commercially successful. The anticipation towards PK has been building up steadily in the last month or so and even before that, they kept planting stories in the media to stoke audience interest. On Friday, it was next to impossible to get tickets. I have decided to wait for the Christmas week to watch it and I am pretty confident it will run a second week.
Maybe using so much hype and promotion is a cynical way to do the movie business but in that case, Superstar also shouldn't demand supernormal acting fees. If you don't want to play the hype game, then keep it low key and cheap so that it is easier for the distributors and theater owners to make money on the film.
Seriously.... you too CK talking about PK here?? Its a 3 movies EROS deal done and dusted nothing more to talk about. It was big mistake that THEY thought 6 months was enough time for any movie, let alone dealing with a 60+ who wants chew cameras ! Saabhaa aappa Muruga Shot gun Murugan's grand father ! And he is not Gamal hassar who have awesome steroid dosed botoxed body for doing some real camera chewing and high octane camera kullukkufying action stunts. So his strengths are his strengths now with his age its his weakness. Point I am trying to make is no matter how much hype or promotion you do for a below average movie, fans / viewers will eventually pass on verdict that movie deserves. So Merry Xmas to you and your family , hope you enjoy the Alien Invasion
My onions and Signature changes according to my desperate need to be in lime light as the BIG Brother :0 - just saying..
I am NOT saying PK is a good film and it should be pretty obvious I wouldn't when I haven't even seen it. I am just comparing the marketing and promotion of one film vis a vis other (which has the biggest Tamil star of the last several years). The point is these days films with big stars don't depend on word of the mouth publicity. They generate hype to get people to theaters to watch the film in the opening weekend and recover their cost in that time. Rest is bonus. One way to achieve this is to keep the supply of films down, so releasing Linga so soon after Kochadaiyan was itself probably a big mistake. Since Hirani's PK is coming so long after 3 Idiots and stars the one-film-a-year wonder Aamir Khan, that in itself is enough to generate anticipation. It may be that KSR took the hype factor for granted, assuming people would turn up just because it's a Rajni film.
I am NOT saying PK is a good film and it should be pretty obvious I wouldn't when I haven't even seen it. I am just comparing the marketing and promotion of one film vis a vis other (which has the biggest Tamil star of the last several years). The point is these days films with big stars don't depend on word of the mouth publicity. They generate hype to get people to theaters to watch the film in the opening weekend and recover their cost in that time. Rest is bonus. One way to achieve this is to keep the supply of films down, so releasing Linga so soon after Kochadaiyan was itself probably a big mistake. Since Hirani's PK is coming so long after 3 Idiots and stars the one-film-a-year wonder Aamir Khan, that in itself is enough to generate anticipation. It may be that KSR took the hype factor for granted, assuming people would turn up just because it's a Rajni film.
You are completely wrong..the movie has enough hype but overpricing the movie cost linga..if the movie is sold at less price with 2000 screens instead of 3000 screens the movie would have been blockbuster by now..
same is the case with kuselan as well..they released kuselan equal or more than sivaji,released Lingaa equal to enthiran which caused them the problem..
Also regarding PK/3idiots almost all AK movies are created with huge hype like talaash,dhoom3..dhoom3 created more hype than PK/3idiots but we know the outcome/result of that movie..
Last edited by USV; 21st December 2014 at 11:31 AM.
If the movie was 'overpriced', it means it needed to be hyped up more. Maybe there was a lot of publicity in Chennai but there was hardly any buzz among Tamilians and other South Indians in Mumbai (vis a vis Sivaji or Endhiran). There was next to no excitement. Maybe releasing it next year would have helped. As far as Dhoom 3, it made nearly 5 times its budget and ran 9 weeks. Lack of competition, more than any other factor, allowed it to run well in spite of hugely overpriced tickets intended to cash in on the Christmas vacations. It may not have been as good a film as 3 Idiots, but there's no such rule that only good films do well at the BO. It's probably rare that a film with a fresh approach and good execution of the same actually succeeds in a big way at the BO.
Originally Posted by venkkiram
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