NATIONAL CINEMA DAY STARTS TREND OF CONCESSIONAL PRICING? | 7 October, 2022

At least two producers seem to have been mighty impressed by the huge jump in footfalls noticed on the National Cinema Day on 23rd September when cinema admission rates were drastically reduced. Goodbye, released today (7th October), was offered to the public at lower ticket prices on the first day. Similarly, the producers of Drishyam 2 offered tickets for the film at 50% discount for the release day (18th November). The discount was available only if the booking was made on 2nd October because October 2 and 3 had been dates of discussion in Drishyam.

Of course, the opening of Goodbye has been so poor that it is evident, even the discount strategy did not help augment footfalls. This underlines the fact that concessional pricing can help only and only if content is good. Lower pricing cannot replace content as a pulling force for the audience. Frankly, that was evident on 23rd September as well because the maximum benefit of the reduced ticket pricing went to Brahmastra (which was then in its third week), with hardly any advantage accruing to the new releases of that day — Chup and Dhokha Round D Corner.