Is the Sunday release appropriate?
We are about 3 to 4 days away from the grand release of Sikandar which is releasing on a Sunday. Sunday means an opening bigger than potential but it also comes with certain drawbacks. Sikandar overseas advance booking is poor and is not at the usual Salman Khan level. The Khans have huge stardom overseas due to their appeal and also due to the presence of a huge Hindi speaking audience. This Hindi speaking audience also has a huge chunk of the Pakistani nationals that are present hugely in UK, Gulf, Australia and Germany etc.
Sikandar movie pre-sales would have little movement only if it was a Friday release as the Ramadan period is not for the box office. And if Sikandar Movie Reviews(s) are not in favour then the Friday, Saturday and Sunday will ensure that the EID day sees restricted growth due to rapid growth of poor word of mouth. But if the film turns out to be good then the Friday release would have been solid. A good opening on Friday, some growth on Saturday, huge growth on Sunday and then a massive surge on EID day but Advance Booking Update(s) suggest that Sunday is the perfect release date else the Friday opening would be a very big disappointment and now that disappointment has been averted. Opening would have disappointed but if the film will have good reports, it would have got a big weekend.
Coming to overseas markets, Sunday release means limited weekend collection as the weekdays don’t add much numbers and if the word of mouth is negative, then the film cannot take off but a Friday release ensures a respectable weekend. Nevertheless, looking at the poor advance booking momentum in India and overseas, Sunday is the perfect for setting a big opening day but Friday comes with risk of word of mouth.
Salman Khan is not serious, here’s why
You may see tweets or posts of actors promoting movies of other actors and most of it is PR driven. Yes, there are a few instances where the asset of the film is shared out of love, like Salman Khan sharing Jawan or BMCM trailer etc. But in case of Salman Khan, you’ll barely see anyone coming in his support in both PR and organic ways. Salman Khan is known for being secured but the team needs to be more active in utilising the huge star-power Salman has. The team shows no efforts in contacting actors to post links of teasers or trailers. A Jawan or a Pathaan stormed the South world on internet when all major A listers like Prabhas, Vijay, Allu Arjun came in support of the Shah Rukh Khan top grossers by sharing the link of the teaser/trailer. Those kinds of tweets will only come if the team reminds you of something and here Salman Khan’s team is clueless. No perception building that it is a huge biggie. When a Prabhas shares a Pathaan trailer or teaser wishing SRK all the best, hundreds of articles, thousands of social media posts appear which gives the film organic traction and makes it seem like a biggie. When Vijay shared it, the same thing happened but in case of Salman Khan, no one shares it because the team puts in no effort whatsoever. Not bringing his acting skills or screen presence, Inside Box Office will do a separate story addressing these issues. In this era, where competition exists, these things do help in some ways. But of course, content is king.
