Originally Posted by
Rasayya
I am with you on the pricing strategy adopted by these greedy exhibitors.
It is like within the first 3 to 5 days , they want to break even and move on getting another movie . I don't see large scale advertising or promotions like they do in Canada for Tamil films. The linguistic demography is spread across Edison NJ, Dallas /Houston TX, Atlanta , LA, San Jose / santa clara , Chicago and Boston MA. so having screenings in other centers is only convenience and not going to greatly increase the revenue. I have been following the trend since 2004
I read that the screening this time for UV was going to happen in about 100 locations and screens all of the US for the first week with exceptions of "No Thursday shows" in some cities . well that is understandable given the fact it is a week day. My argument is do we assume that Prime media USA would have paid a million USD upfront for the NA rights and going by the minimum 20 screenings ( 2 weeks /weekends) in all of the 100 locations and so would want to recover all the money in two weeks time? Even if it were 70/30 sharing basis as someone pointed in the hub, did they pay 400K to start with? some numbers don't really find a place in the economics of distribution ?
I know of a colleague (telugu speaking) who exhibited several telugu movies prior to 2010 and he made money in few BB movies of Balakrishna , venkatesh and Chiru movies and also had a deep cut with two subsequent movies in late 2010 and his partnership broke apart and he took several years to recoup this deficit.
Here in Atlanta , many Indian grocery stores have Hindi movies banner or posters ahead of its release, WOM is easy with all the Hindi music channels showing trailers thru out the day and for several weeks .
The Irony is when I went to the premier show last Thursday at Aakash Cinemas (previously Navrang Theaters) , they had no clue if at all the Pin will arrive before 4.30 pm for a 5.00 pm show. Posters were not there . kanchana and OKK posters were there. The office manager was checking his email periodically if the PIN was generated and sent to his Inbox. Another second in line was answering the phone calls received not sure if the movie goers can actually make online ticketing or for that matter if they should actually come to the theaters for the second and third show planned for that day.
I missed all the gala and fun with the FDFS crowd and we were only 4 of us who whistled at the start and that's it. we were about 30 odd watching in a 245 seater hall.
It is a sad state of affairs for Tamil movies
exhibitors and distribution mechanism has to change in the near the future.........
[
QUOTE=irir123;1223755]Dasa and other big tamil films were priced at $15 per ticket - that too in theaters that probably qualify to be indoor dog parks - what the heck?
And now UV has been released in Cinemark and Carmike cinemas and tickets are priced the same as before - $15 - while regular Hollywood films are $10 per ticket in the same multiplexes..
why this greed on the part of Indian/Tamil film distributors?
if being charged $15, then damn it release it in AMC/ Regal cinemas massively throughout..
Ridiculous...