Spider-Man: No Way Home, the year’s largest and most anticipated blockbuster, has finally arrived, and the Tom Holland starring has already shattered significant box office records. However, the Ranveer Singh starrer 83 will be released next week, and talks between exhibitors and producers are underway, which do not appear to be in Kabir Khan’s favour at the moment.
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Both projects have their fair share of excitement among fans, but the MCU film is now the most popular pick among the general public. Shows that start as early as 6 a.m. are selling out.
A source close to the exhibitors told Bollywood Hungama, “Reliance Entertainment has demanded 100% showcasing at all single screens for their sports drama, 83, from December 24 and a higher share of shows in the multiplexes too with maximum prime time shows. However, the single screen owners are spoilt for choices, due to the unprecedented hype around Spider-Man: No Way Home.”
The source added, “The cinema owners all across feel that it would be unfair to scale down the showcasing of Spider-Man: No Way Home by a huge margin in the second week, as the week one business will be nothing but historic. While they are ready to give maximum showcasing to 83, they feel, Spiderman too will retain a substantial amount of shows.”
Meanwhile, single-screen theatre owners don’t agree with the terms, an exhibitor told the news portal, “Reliance Entertainment spoilt our Diwali by fighting till the end. We eventually agreed on all their demands. But this time around, we are willing to showcase films based on merit. Spider-Man will be doing record numbers in the first week. How can they expect us to completely remove the film in its second week and allot all shows to 83? We won’t bow down to their demands. The entire cine owner association is on the same page and not willing to leave Spider-Man in the second week for the Ranveer Singh film. We will allot showcasing based on merits and box office numbers.”
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Cinema chain like PVR which is also a producer partner of the sports drama has also refused to accept the offer from the team of ’83. “They can’t suddenly remove Spider-Man: No Way Home from the prime time shows. Yes, 83 is a big film and it will get preference in showcasing. But expecting to get 80% to 90% of the prime time shows is an unreasonable demand.”
