Awarapan 2 sells 6 TIMES more tickets than Batwara 1947, yet gets just 282 more shows; PVR INOX showcasing raises questions
The Friday release battle has once again brought the spotlight on the showcasing power vested with PVRInox’s distribution team. According to independent trade sources, Awarapan 2 has been allotted 9,505 shows nationwide, only marginally ahead of Batwara 1947, which is playing on 9,223 shows. On paper, the two films appear to have received similar showcasing. However, the advance booking numbers paint a dramatically different picture across the board.
Across the national multiplex chains, Awarapan 2 has sold approximately 1.25 lakh tickets for Friday, while Batwara 1947 has managed only around 21,000 admissions. Despite commanding nearly six times the advance booking, Awarapan 2 has not been rewarded with a proportionately larger number of shows.
Industry observers point out that Awarapan 2 was always planned as a wide commercial release and, based on its demand, should ideally have been playing in the vicinity of 14,000 shows nationwide. Instead, the film has been capped at around 9,500 shows, restricting its earning potential despite significantly stronger audience interest.
The situation has once again revived discussions about the dominant power position by PVRInox, which has often appeared strained whenever their respective distribution interests clash. Trade circles have long felt that in competitive release scenarios, PVRInox often push their films to receive preferential treatment, despite not commanding the merits. “Batwara advances are rather dull, and a wide release makes no sense. In an ideal scenario, it would have gotten 6,000 to 7,000 shows all across, but since PVRInox is the distributor as well as India’s leading national chain – it has given preference to Batwara 1947, which is distributed by Pen Marudhar.”
The irony is that this strategy may have hurt PVRInox itself. By allocating near-equal showcasing to a film generating substantially lower demand, the country’s largest exhibitor has potentially sacrificed revenue that could have been earned through higher ticket sales, better occupancies, and increased food and beverage consumption. Every additional sold-out show of Awarapan 2 would have translated into greater box office collections as well as higher concession sales for the exhibitor.
The episode also revives a concern that has existed ever since the merger of PVR and INOX. At the time of consolidation, many within the industry feared that a single dominant exhibition chain would possess the ability to disproportionately influence showcase allocation across India. Situations such as this are likely to fuel that debate once again, particularly when audience demand appears to be significantly stronger for one film than the number of shows allotted to it.
While showcase allocation ultimately remains a commercial decision taken jointly by exhibitors and distributors, the disparity between 1.25 lakh advance admissions for Awarapan 2 and 21,000 for Batwara 1947 is likely to remain a talking point in trade circles over the coming days, with many questioning whether the current allocation truly reflects market demand.
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