There is always a look out for holidays to release films but this week perfect timing has played a part in Newton becoming some sort of success rather than an also ran. The news that it will be the Oscar entry for India gave it that momentum as soon as the news came out. The Oscars hold some intrigue for the English speaking audience in metros and it is because of this, that this audience will come out of curiosity. This audience is also knowledgeable enough to know that the Indian awards are totally fake so those make little difference but a film going to Oscars holds some value for them. The larger audience does not care for any award or Oscar and its all on the film being liked.

So for small films if you are in these nomination lists it would be a good idea to plan your release at the time when the decision is going to be announced. Its hard to get lucky as Newton with the perfect timing but if its going to double your potential box office then its worth the risk. This announcement could have come 4-5 days later and Newton would probably be sitting on much less of the collections it has now. Not that it has much now but without this Oscar factor it would have been much less. This is the luck factor at play and sometimes it can work out to be the biggest factor of all.

This will only work for small films like Newton which have a very limited audience, if its a bigger film in the same scenario then it does not really work as the audience that react to these sort of external factors remains the same. So for example if Newton was going to get around 40,000 people to the theatres on day one then the decision of it going to the Oscars gets around 40,000 more people to theatres and then there is weekend still to come. But when a film is getting 5 lakh people to the cinemas and then you add those 40,000 which get intrigued by the Oscars then it is hardly noticeable as its not even 10% more while for the Newton types its 100% more. 

Actually its hard to put a number as to how much this announcement has boosted Newton as 100% could be the minimum. When the film opened on Friday morning a 50 lakh nett total looked tough and that was allowing for more than normal Friday growth and where can you go from 50 lakhs nett as the 170% increase was not coming without this Oscar announcement.