Chup is looking at a decent advance of around 1 nett  for the weekend due to cinema day and lower ticket rate of INR 75 and this 1 crore nett may well have been its opening day collections if it was a normal day. Actually it could have been even less. The advance is hugely lopsided for the first day so there will be a chance for the film get over the 2 crore nett mark on day one depending on what sort of capacity there is where rates are INR 75 and how current moves.

The advance admits for Chup are going to be higher than most films this year. At the national chains they will actually be higher than all Hindi releases of  2022 apart from KGF 2 and Brahmastra but advance is measured by collections as they are the bottom line and here it is not comparable with the bigger films though for Chup itself this advance of 1 crore nett is solid.

This cinema day can show the way forward for the medium and smaller big films though a 75 rupee ticket rate is too low in some circuits where there is service tax as nett collection becomes very low leaving a minimal share. A Gujarat has a service tax of INR 25 so that leaves INR 50 and then INR 40 after GST to be split by the exhibitors and distributors. 

A film like Brahmastra may do 1 lakh admits on Friday in Gujarat but the distributor will only get a 15 lakh apprx share which will be less than Thursday as only INR 15 per admit of the INR 75 will be coming back to the distributor. The advance of Brahmastra on the third Friday in terms oF ADMITS at national chains may well the be third highest of all time after the second and third day of Bahubali - The Conclusion. It should beat the first day of Bahubali - The Conclusion which was 6.5 lakhs. The advance in terms of collections for Friday looks to be heading for around 5.50 crore nett across India.

The real issue is concessions as India is probably the only country where cinema is big yet the price of a soft drink and popcorn is at a similar or higher rate than the ticket rate where average consumption comes at. In the West the price of popcorn and soft drink is generally half the average ticket rate. Here if concessions rates are halved the results will be seen within weeks and cinema will flourish but plexes are unlikely to go this route yet so it becomes about lower ticket rates to entice the audience back for the average film

There maybe celebration in the trade and media due to the cinema day but there is more trepidation in distribution as the taxes leave a low bottom line even though admits are huge and more than that the bigger question is what will happen post cinema day as advances are insanely low post Friday.

Obviously if concessions are not to be bought down then something has to be done with the base ticket rate to enable the medium and small film to have a chance at the box office but there will have to be more longer testing period and the rate cant go this low where states charge a service charge as it leaves hardly anything coming back to the producer or distributor.

There will be have to be a longer trail period as to how lower ticket prices work and what price they should be so that footfalls increase but so does the recovery of the distributor. There will be the pre Diwali period starting mid October and a couple of medium budget releases so a trail period can be pushed for ten days till Diwali or something like that which will give a much better idea of what can be done if the industry is take the route of lower ticket rates.