With night curfews being ordered by various state governments in view of Christmas and New Year festivities and the looming fear of the Omicron variant of the Coronavirus, box-office is expected to take a major hit. After the governments of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, it is the Haryana government which today (24th December) announced the reimposition of night curfews. The Gujarat government has also imposed curfews in major cities like Ahmedabad, Baroda, Surat, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Gandhinagar and Junagadh. Curfews in most of the states/cities would begin at 11 p.m. This would mean that the 9 or 9.30 or 10 p.m. shows in multiplexes can’t be conducted. Single-screen cinemas will have to adjust their show timings so that the last shows get over before 11 p.m.
More state governments are likely to announce similar night curfews for at least a week.