Allu Arjun starrer ‘Pushpa 2‘ has been enjoying an uninteruppted run at the box office ever since it released on December 5. The film has left everyone shocked as the Hindi version performed better than the Telugu version and it’s been getting more numbers from North India. ‘Pushpa 2’, however, will now start facing competition from ‘Baby John‘ which is set to release on Christmas. There’s been a battle between the distributors of both these films regarding the number of screens.
Christmas is a big day and also provides a good window to generate revenue at the box office. Thus, even ‘Pushpa 2’ doesn’t want to miss out on this chance and wants equal number of screens as ‘Baby John’. The Varun Dhawan starrer has its day 1 on Christmas, while ‘Pushpa 2’ is already in cinemas for around three weeks now. So, ‘Baby John’ would obviously get more shows.
But distributor Anil Thadani is fighting for equal shows on Christmas. Pinkvilla has quoted a source saying, “Anil Thadani asked all India multiplex chains to commit 50 percent of the showcasing for the Christmas holiday (Day 21 for Pushpa 2), leaving the remaining 50 percent to be split between Baby John and Mufasa: The Lion King. The distributor asked for an email confirmation from the multiplexes, and when the chains refused to bow down to the demands, AA Films held back on the KDM & release order for third weekend.”
The source further added, “It’s unfair to have 50 percent shows in week 4, leaving nothing for new releases. The multiplexes wished to give fair showcasing to all the films, and collectively took a stand to discontinue Pushpa 2 on the third weekend. On understanding the stance of the exhibitors, Anil Thadani released the KDM for the third weekend, however, will continue to initiate the conversations for December 25 showcasing over the weekend.”
Thus, due to these issues, the advance bookings of ‘Pushpa 2’ was closed in all the PVR Inox chains. It’s now open again but the final negotiation regarding the number of screens is expected to take place over the weekend.