Bollywood Box Office: Are Makers Obsessed With Holidays & Festive Seasons For Returns?

In the last few years, films like Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, Jungle Book, Baahubali 2, Fast and Furious 7, Jurassic World and more recently, Avengers: Infinity War proved that a good film appealing to a wide audience will do well at the Box-Office even without getting the additional padding from national holidays’ like Independence Day, Republic Day, Gandhi Jayanti, Dussehra and festive season like Eid, Diwali and Christmas.

While Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013) and Jungle Book (2015) collected approximately Rs 180 crore at the Box-Office in India, Baahubali 2 went on to create history by raking in around Rs 510 crore at the Box-Office in the Hindi Film Market. Recently released summer blockbuster, Avengers: Infinity War has opened better than 95% of the Bollywood film and that too during a non-holiday weekend.

Yes, the film did benefit due to enhanced ticket rates, however that doesn’t take away the fact that it opened to humongous number at the ticket window. This gets us to the point of our article i.e. is Bollywood obsessed with Holiday’s and Festive season?

Well, over the years we have seen producers locking the holiday periods like Eid, Diwali, Christmas, Republic Day and Independence Day way in advance to reap the benefit of the national holiday’s in that period. While there is no denying the fact that the holiday and festive season give an additional mileage to the Box-Office collections of the film by approximately 20 to 25%, however films like Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, Baahubali 2, Avengers: Infinity War and Jungle Book to name a few prove that a good film with universal content will be lapped up by the audience irrespective of the release date. The audience in our country are looking for wholesome entertainment packaged in a film, and their theatre outing depends majorly on the excitement generated by the theatrical trailer.

Personally, I feel that the benefit provided by the holiday’s in the opening weekend will more or less be covered up by a film in the long run, if it releases on a non-holiday, provided that the content is good, entertaining and has a pan India appeal. Leaving aside the universally loved films mentioned above, even a film like Baaghi 2, which seemed like a wholesome entertainer from the trailer was lapped up by the audience in huge numbers despite releasing during a non-holiday period. And here, we are talking about a film with mixed word of mouth, featuring a young star, which ended up doing in excess of Rs 150 crore at the Box-Office.

On the same lines, even Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat is another example of a good film, that did humongous biz at the Box-Office despite getting benefit of merely a single holiday i.e. Republic Day in its lifetime run. It became the first Hindi film to collect in excess of Rs 275 crore during a non-festive period.

The perception built around the industry that only the films that release on Eid-Diwali-Christmas stand a chance to do Rs 300 crore at the Box-Office need to be broken sooner or later. It is about time the big event films start releasing during the Non-Holiday period as well, as in a country as vast as India, there will always be an audience that would splurge money to watch a film in cinema hall on the first day, if the trailer and content is exciting. Back in 2011, Salman Khan’s Ready released on a Non-Holiday weekend and it became the fourth highest grossing Hindi film of all time upon its release.

Even Akshay Kumar’s Rowdy Rathore did tremendous biz on a Non-Holiday weekend and emerged one of the biggest Blockbuster upon the release, however after the release of Rowdy Rathore, Kumar either did bad commercial films that released on a Non-Holiday or stuck to doing content driven films with niche appeal, that didn’t just excite the Pan-India audience. The reason for Akshay Kumar films not doing Rs 150 and 200 crore at the Box-Office is not because they release on Non-Holiday, rather it is because he isn’t attempting to do the films that command the potential to do Rs 200 crore at the Box-Office, even during the festive season.

I truly believe that an event film starring top stars especially the Three Mighty Khan’s can set the Box-Office on fire even on a Non-Holiday. In-fact, films like Tiger Zinda Hai, Dangal, PK, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Dhoom 3, Kick indeed released on a Non-Holiday and set some solid opening records at the box office. The films eventually reaped the benefit of festive season on the weekdays. The opening of these films indeed prove that even Bollywood films can take flying start at the Box-Office on a Non-Holiday, and it is about time someone proves it by coming up with a film during a non-festive weekend.

Leaving the Khan’s aside, event films starring other major stars like Akshay Kumar, Hrithik Roshan, Ajay Devgn, Ranbir Kapoor, Ranveer Singh and Varun Dhawan also stand a chance to do solid business at the Box-Office, although, as per the current standings, a little lower than the above mentioned three Khan’s. It is just the matter of right content and commercial appeal.

What do you guys think about this? Do let us know!