Kritika Kapoor (BOMBAY TIMES; July 6, 2012)

 

Advance booking’ is a phrase we don’t hear too often in the multiplex era, since most of the plexes have a policy of opening bookings only on a Wednesday. But, with the revival of the single screens, the term is making a comeback. The latest example of this is Bol Bachchan. The advance booking for the movie shot through the roof almost a week before its release — an unheard of phenomenon in the multiplex-dominated cinescape.

Chote Sheheron mein bade sales Some of the most astonishing sales have been in cities like Nagpur, where the film is already sold out before its release. Meanwhile, single-screen theatres in Indore and Bhopal had also sold 70 per cent of their tickets by Wednesday evening. Bol Bachchan is unabashedly marketed towards single screens (or theatres of the masses), which are the default in tier-II cities. Besides, the film is set to make about Rs 5 lakh, even before its release in single screen theatres, in metropolitan cities as well. This isn’t unprecedented, but it’s rare. In recent times, only 3 Idiots, Dabangg and Bodyguard saw this kind of a pre-opening windfall.

Multiplexes? Just the icing on the cake The multiplexes are the primary factor in the diminishing of the ‘advance booking’ system. Usually, they don’t sell tickets of Friday releases before Wednesday. Despite that, by Thursday morning itself, 25 per cent of the total tickets of each cinema in all the big cities were booked out (the average was More >