Telugu movies used to run in theatres for one hundred and seventy-five days without deficits. Most of the big films used to run at least a hundred days in many theatres across the Telugu states. With the advent of CD players & DVD players, films run were reduced to fifty days in theatres at the most and then further reduced to four to five weeks during the days when piracy of films was at its peak. Over the last ten years, there has been an increase in multi-screen multiplexes across the Telugu states and over the last five to six years, especially after the Covid, there has been an increase in OTT platforms and people got used to watching movies on OTT platforms in the comfort of their homes with families and friends. The multiplexes and OTT platforms reduced the run of the films in theatres to around seven to ten days over the last five to six years. Even in those first seven to ten days of a film’s release, people prefer to watch movies only during weekends.
The paying public slowly started going to theatres only for event films or films of big stars or films that received extremely good word of mouth. The increase in ticket prices, especially during the first week for event films and films of big stars further reduced the footfall. Over the last few years, films like RRRMovie, KGF: Chapter 2, Waltair Veerayya, Sita Ramam, Karthikeya 2, Virupaksha and a few other films had a good run(i.e. three to four weeks) in theatres.
The story of theatrical long runs for the films seems to have changed again this year. At least fifteen films earned good collections at the Telugu states box office this year so far. Out of the fifteen-odd hit films, eight films got a very good run in theatres for about four to six weeks. Hanuman, Tillu Square, Kalki 2898AD, Committee Kurrollu, Aay, Devara: Part 1, Lucky Baskhar and Amaran, all these eight films had a very good long run in theatres and raised hopes of exhibitors, distributors and all other stakeholders for a possible revival of long theatrical runs for the films.
It all started with Hanuman in January. Prasanth Varma’s superhero film was released as an underdog against Superstar Mahesh Babu & Trivikram’s Guntur Kaaram and went on to become a blockbuster. The film had a very good run in theatres for five to six weeks. The Hindi version of the film too had a good run in theatres. The second film in Siddu Jonnalagadda’s Tillu franchise, Tillu Square released at the end of March and ran in theatres for around a month with very good collections.
Prabhas and Nag Ashwin’s Sci-Fi film set in the backdrop of Mahabharat and the post-apocalyptic world, Kalki 2898 AD released in theatres on 27th June with huge expectations and went on to collect more than a thousand crore gross at the box office. The film had a very good run in theatres for about fifty days not just in Telugu but in Hindi and Tamil as well. Just on Book My Show, the online ticketing portal, 1.32 Crore tickets were sold for the film. The record for the highest ticket sales so far this year on the Book My Show portal is in the name of Kalki 2898 AD.
August of this year brought a lot of hope to the Telugu film industry. It was in August, the industry people started believing that audiences would come to theatres in big numbers even for small films that are well-made. Committee Kurrollu, produced by Niharika Konidela and Aay, produced by Allu Aravind’s GA2 Pictures released in August. Both the films with no notable stars started slowly and picked up gradually with positive word of mouth and ran in theatres for around four weeks.
Jr. NTR & Koratala Siva’s Devara: Part 1 was released in theatres on 27th September and had a very good run in theatres for around four to five weeks. Even in its third week during the Dussehra festival, audiences preferred to watch Devara: Part 1 in theatres rather than the films that were released on the occasion of Dussehra. It ran in theatres with decent to good revenue until the arrival of Diwali releases.
Dulquer Salmaan & Meenakshi Chaudhary’s Lucky Baskhar and Sivakarthikeyan & Sai Pallavi’s Tamil to Telugu dubbed film, Amaran released on 31st October in theatres on the occasion of Diwali and are still running in theatres. Both the films are still trending on Book My Show hourly ticket sales trends and are doing well in theatres compared to all the latest movies that were released in the last three weeks. S
Along with these eight films, Nani’s Saripodhaa Sanivaaram, Simha Koduri & Satya’s Mathu Vadalara 2 and Kiran Abbavaram’s KA also did well in theatres for around two to three weeks. The much-awaited ‘Pushpa2: The Rule’ is coming to theatres in ten days and is sure to have a thunderous opening and very long run in theatres in Telugu, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and possibly in Kannada and Bengali as well. We also have a few interesting films scheduled to be released during Christmas in Telugu and those films also have the potential to get a good run.
Having long runs in theatres for films is key to the survival of theatres and the exhibition sector. This year certainly raised hopes of a possible revival of theatrical long runs. Let’s hope for this trend to continue in the coming days and months and hope to see films celebrating 100 days and 175 days functions again very soon.
Tags Telugu Film Industry TFI Tollywood
