Good content will always work. COVID fear or cold wave, nothing can stop people from going to the cinemas, it seems. The following two examples are enough proof of the fact that people want to come out off their homes and watch good films, entertaining films.
The first example is that of Punjabi film Shooter, directed jointly by Dilsher Singh and Khushpal Singh, and starring Jay Randhawa and Swalina. It opened to bumper houses on Friday, January 14. Not just in Punjab, it drew huge crowds to the cinemas even in U.P. Cinemas in U.P. recorded house full shows on the opening day in spite of COVID fear and notwithstanding the cold wave. Whether it was at Starworld, Bijnor, or Maya, Muzaffarnagar, there were huge crowds of people for the Punjabi film. In cinemas at stations like Rudrapur (in Uttarakhand (U.P. circuit)) and Jammu (in East Punjab circuit), occupancy on Friday was 80-90%!
The other example is that of Pushpa: The Rise Part 1 (dubbed). The film is now running in its fifth week. It is also being streamed on OTT platform Amazon from January 14. Yet, it drew full houses at two or three properties of Rajhans on Friday (January 14) and Saturday (January 15).