In the year 2021, there was not only conflict within the Indian film industry but throughout all of world economy. Covid-19 had caused chaos in every facet of life when it erupted around three months ago. Now, after most people had given up hope and lost their lives to Covid-19 halfway through the year, December brought about fresh hope from a slew of entertaining Bollywood films.
Surprisingly though, this phenomenon hasn’t happened often before – out of the past 93 movies to make more than 100 crores at theaters worldwide, 83 has managed to set an example for others by being one such case where it reached its goal with relative ease after just 17 days since its release date.
A cursory examination of the data available suggests that a lot more movies were released with RS 100 crore budgets in December than any other month. What makes December such an intriguing period for film makers? It seems that it’s because there are many public holidays during this month – including Christmas and New Year – which make it easier for people to go see the movie, giving them longer hours inside theatres.
Taran Adarsh, who is an analyst from the trade journal Boxoffice India said December is a major holiday season; with Christmas and New Year, films that release around this time have the added advantage of a clear run at the box office, with the assurance of footfalls since vacations are on. Most schools and colleges are on break, the Christmas season has the audience in a lighter mooded (sic), and then of course the long run at both theatres and home video markets till January 3.
Producer and Film Business Expert, Girish Johar shares a similar point of view as he says, If you look at the business, trending for films is usually on the upswing from Diwali onwards. Yes the holiday season does play a major role, but you also have to note that typically big releases target this segment when it trends positively. To capitalize on a market that has an upward trend most big-ticket film releases are planned around this time.
So December always features high numbers of both successful as well as not-so-successful movies. Pointing out one more interesting fact, Taran Adarsh continues,It’s not just Bollywood where this phenomenon works. Globally too during Christmas everyone starts watching movies again after all those days off work which gives filmmakers quite some food for thought given how close we’re moving towards peak movie season.
All in all, the month of December – which had just ended up being rather successful this time around with three films – Spider-man: No Way Home, Pushpa: The Rise – Part 1 and 83 – taking over the box office, will continue to be a gold mine for new releases. This may have been because of the holidays or simply due to the happy attitude that just surrounded everyone during this time; but regardless of what it was this can only mean good news for movie lovers everywhere.
