Trend: Thursday releases are the in thing

Filmmaking is purely a business where careers can be made and broken in just a day. Releasing a movie is one of the biggest responsibilities for the producer. From the past five years, if we observe, the trend has changed drastically as films run only for max three weeks even though they are blockbuster hits.

Even if you have the biggest of the star cast and do not have the required content, the film will run only for a week. So, what should one do to minimize these risks? The latest technique that our Tollywood producers have found out is that to release their films on a Thursday rather than the regular Friday to get bigger window for ‘openings’.

Films like ‘Deva Das’, ‘Srinivasa Kalyanam’, ‘RX 100’, ‘Vijetha’, ‘Pantham’, ‘Paper Boy’, ‘U Turn, ‘Sailajareddy Alludu’, all of these recent movies have released on Thursday. If that's not enough, some of the biggest films coming out in the near future, ‘Aravinda Sametha’, ‘2.0’, ‘Pandem Kodi’, ‘Hello Guru Prema Kosame’ are either releasing on Thursday or Wednesday.

This is being done only to get more numbers at the box office. Saturday and Sunday's are off in most offices and the Hungama for the film begins from Friday itself. So, the makers have started things in a way that the film's buzz is generated from Thursday which is the release date.

If the film is a hit, then the first four days will generate great revenues. Even if the film flops, the risk would be low because of opening weekend would be four days. The classic case is ‘Sailja Reddy Alludu’. The film got mixed talk but as it was released on Thursday and had a four-day weekend, more than 70% of the revenues were collected in the first weekend itself.

So Thursday is the new Friday and films nowadays have that four-day window to make or break at the box office. If they click, then there is no looking back, but the film flops, then those four days are enough to save many films.