It was a washout for this weekend's releases as cricket-crazy country gives theatres a miss

None of the new releases managed to generate any interest from the audience over this weekend. The much-praised animation film, Arjun — The Warrior Prince didn't register good numbers apparently owing to lack of proper promotion.

Even the more-publicised Men In Black 3 and the acclaimed Grey failed to make the numbers. Surprisingly, regional films dominated the weekend.

Veteran trade analyst Amod Mehra attributes the dull weekend to the absence of attractive names for the Bollywood releases.

"It was only cricket during the weekend. Even MIB3 wasn't good enough, " he says, adding that films like Yeh Khula Aasmaan, Love Wrinkle Free, MLA, Love Recipe and Chutki Baja Ke didn't take off at all.

Blame the game

Atul Mohan of a trade weekly maintains that even the semis and final of the Indian Premiere League also influenced people to stay at home.

"With not one film featuring a star, the audience didn't want to watch non-starrers. The IPL final on Sunday evening also added to a further decrease in the numbers, " he says, adding, "Although Arjun earned raving reviews, it wasn't promoted well enough."



Girish Wankhede from a national multiplex chain says that despite being the most anticipated film, MIB delivered below expectations.

"The weekend average was about 30 per cent while Grey registered about 16 to 18 per cent, " he states. However, he's happy that the regional films drew in some audience to ensure decent footfalls.

Local flavour

Girish adds, "Mahesh Manjrekar's Kaksparsh is doing very well with about 25 per cent occupancy in its fourth weekend. The new Marathi release, Chintu, saw occupancy of about 22 per cent in its opening. Nitin Desai's Ajintha registered 20 per cent occupancy in its third weekend. Malayalam film Hero saw the auditoriums fill up to 80 per cent of the capacity."