When the audience does not turn up in the theatres in these testing times, the trend of lowering ticket rates is the new fashion as this has been done countless times, even for successful films such as Pathaan and Brahmastra. The latest film to join the party is the Prabhas-starring mythological epic Adipurush which plummeted at the box office after a huge opening weekend due to its negative word-of-mouth. The film could collect just 3.5 crores on its first Wednesday, making it tough for the film to crack even the 140 mark mark due to the trajectory it is facing. The footfalls have fallen to an all-time low and to boost them, the makers took the initiative of lowering the ticket rates of the film to just rupees 150 for 22nd and 23rd June 2023. This offer excludes the 3D version of the film as that will have extra charges for 3D glasses and also the entire South India except Karnataka which will be following the normal rates.
This move will ensure that the film will reach a wider audience due to the affordable rates but this also signals trouble as this will reduce collections even if footfalls are increased. This initiative by makers has been largely unsuccessful barring a few exceptions such as National Cinema Day when even the smallest of films got housefull shows but that was just one day. Recently, the offer of Buy 1 Get 1 Free was done for Zara Hatke Zara Bachke and the dubbed versions of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse where the latter got the benefit of more footfalls which led to it being a success but the producers of the film had the bear the costs for the free tickets and the latter had little-to-no demand for its dubbed versions as majority of collections for Hollywood films in India come from the original English version only. As the public has totally rejected the film, it is a given that the move won't help its case much.
Adipurush sees a massive fall on Monday : Here's why
Alongside the reduced rates, the film was subject to criticism for its dialogues which were deemed disrespectful to Lord Hanuman and those have been altered as well in all the prints available for the film starting today. It is remaining to see how much of a boost this move gives to the film which is finding it tough both critically and commercially.