Theaters shutting some screens for next one week Gaiety Galaxy

https://www.bollywoodhungama.com/news/features/laal-singh-chaddha-raksha-bandhan-liger-fail-theatre-owners-shut-screens-till-release-brahmastra-manoj-desai-temporarily-shuts-galaxy-cinema/?s=09

Bad situation

Kiritbhai T Vaghasia, who runs The Friday Cinema in Surat, told Bollywood Hungama, “Next week, there’s only one major release, a Gujarati film named Hey Kem Chho London. There’s no Hindi film releasing on September 2. We are thinking of discontinuing morning shows. Our shows will start at 11:00 am or 12 noon. There’s no point in having morning shows since the turnout would be zero. Or if only 1 or 2 tickets are booked, we have to refund the money. At times, the patrons get angry and demand that we start the show. To avoid such uncomfortable situations, it’s better to not schedule any show before 11:00 am.”

Kiritbhai also added, “Had Liger carried good reports, it would have had a clean run for two weeks. We, the exhibitors, would also have breathed easy.”

However, Devang Sampat, CEO, Cinepolis India, said, “Ups and downs are very common and it's happening across the globe. Running a cinema hall means incurring a fixed cost. The manpower is fixed and so is your rental. The only thing you save is electricity. But the electricity cost is such that it’s not feasible to play a show if less than 10 tickets are sold. However, we always have more than ten patrons in each show. So, we don’t believe in cancelling shows. We believe in continuing exhibiting content.”

Hence, all eyes are on Brahmastra, which will be released next week. Akshaye Rathi said, “Brahmastra hopefully will get people back in the cinemas in big numbers. There’s also Vikram Vedha on September 30.” Devang Sampat opined, “Starting with Brahmastra, the line-up looks quite strong.”

G7 has often played big films in both Gaiety and Galaxy. When asked if he’ll follow the same trend for Brahmastra, Manoj Desai retorted, “Nahi. Ek theatre mein chal jaaye, bahut badi baat hai!”