Release date changes hit exhibitors, producers down south

New Delhi: Southern language films such as Vikram’s Thangalaan, Dhanush’s Captain Miller and Mohanlal’s Malaikottai Vaaliban faced multiple changes in release dates over the past months, causing challenges for exhibitors who plan schedules in advance. However, trade experts said delays are common in southern movie industries, as independent producers, who often back these films, may face significant debts, preventing the release of prints until financial obligations are met.

Additionally, delays may occur if OTT rights for the films are unsold, prompting producers to wait until deals are secured before taking the theatrical risk. “This is a huge challenge for theatres that depend on big films and pay huge advances to secure deals to screen them. It is, however, seen as a part and parcel of the movie business in the south, where a lot of films are financed independently and prints cannot be released unless payments are made to creditors.

That is why changing release dates after formal announcements is quite common," independent trade analyst Sreedhar Pillai said. Trade experts also said that producers hesitate to take the risk of releasing films in theatres without securing deals for satellite and digital sales. With leading OTT streaming platforms, including Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, increasingly prioritizing content budgets on acquiring big ticket, star studded films after theatrical releases, low budget films, or ones failing at the box office, are losing out on opportunities.

Notably, many theatrical flops are not finding buyers and remaining unsold for months. Mukesh Mehta, founder of Malayalam film production and distribution company E4 Entertainment, agreed. A film will not be released in theatres unless digital sales are in place, Mehta said. “Producers are not really worried (about reshuffling of dates) as long as they aren’t clashing with another big title at the box office.

Many of them aren’t even expecting big success in cinemas." Although the frequent shifting of release dates is a persistent challenge for the southern movie industries, theatre owners as well as trade experts are swift to highlight that the move doesn’t seem to be denting their business prospects, considering the consistent high quality of film making in the region.

According to experts, the strategy of minimizing promotions and swiftly releasing the films in theatres is often effective. This approach works with limited attention span of audiences, as they prefer not to be inundated with the marketing communication as long as they know a movie with a compelling story is round the corner.

“There is an understanding that most big ticket movies being made at the moment are not just VFX heavy but have to be dubbed and marketed in multiple languages. It is often easy to misjudge timings at times, before realise that one may need more time on post production than initially believed," said Amit Sharma, managing director, Miraj Entertainment, a company that operates multiplex theatres.

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