After the weekend: theaters rejoice as films crack the weekday test

Bucking the age-old trend of big and mid-budget films relying heavily on weekend collections, several recent titles with positive word-of-mouth managed to attract significant audiences during the work week, according to theater owners and trade experts.

While big films like Dhurandhar: The Revenge and Border 2 have shown that big cinema can continue to do exceptionally well on weekdays, mid-budget Hindi films like Welcome To The Jungle, Bhooth Bangla and Main Vaapas Aaunga have also seen steady growth at the multiplexes on weekdays.

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Theater owners say that audiences are increasingly choosing what brings them to the movies. Films that earn their trust are more likely to sustain rather than relying solely on a strong opening. Cinemas, meanwhile, are increasingly treating weekdays as a distinct occasion rather than just an extension of the weekend. Weekday prices, food and beverage (F&B) combinations and loyalty offers are designed to make a Tuesday or Wednesday trip more impressive. Showtimes and theater allocations are also becoming more dynamic, with theaters responding to real demand throughout the week and not just relying on opening day showings.

“We are seeing a very encouraging shift in the way audiences are coming to theaters even after the Friday-Sunday weekend. They are no longer deciding on opening day hype alone. When a film connects, word of mouth takes over and gives it a much longer and healthier theatrical life,” said Sanjeev Kumar Bijli, Managing Director, PVR INOX Ltd.

“The biggest change is that audiences have become more deliberate about the films they choose. The opening weekend is often driven by star power, marketing and the initial excitement of the release. But the weekday audience is driven much more by whether people actually liked the film and what they heard from others. This word of mouth brings in working professionals and families who may prefer a quieter weekday evening over the weekend rush,” added Bijli.

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The company closely monitors weekday demand and uses it to fine-tune screen allocation and display timing, Bijli said. He added that weekday became the true test of the film as it shows whether the initial buzz can translate into a real connection with the audience.

Regional holding

This trend has also been reflected in regional cinema, with Tamil films Gatta Kusthi: 2nd Round and Idhayam Murali, Punjabi film Carry On Jatta 4 and Malayalam film I, Nobody showing strong weekdays.

Rohit Dalmia, chairman and managing director of entertainment financing platform CineNow, said that Main Vaapas Aaunga actually grew over its first Wednesday and Thursday after a modest opening, while Telugu film Lenin also held strong during the week. The trend remains title-specific, but good word of mouth is giving smaller and regional films longer screenings, he added.

Sameer Munshi, chief operating officer of Miraj Entertainment Ltd, said theater operators are moving away from a one-size-fits-all weekday strategy to a more location- and city-specific approach to pricing, programming and showtimes.

“We use local audience behaviour, advance bookings and occupancy data to optimize shows and respond quickly to films showing stronger weekday slots,” Munshi added.

Ashish Misra, head of commercialization, Cinépolis India, agreed that films that open small and then build on weekdays are no longer the exception and said the way films are marketed has also changed. The marketing push no longer stops on release day. Production companies now maintain their social media campaigns beyond opening day, banking on audience reactions as they come in and allowing that momentum to carry over into weeks two and three.

According to Misra, another lever is the price. The company’s Blockbuster Tuesday ticket offering is designed to address this and take the question of price off the table on Tuesdays.

Price advantage

“Weekend ticket prices can be quite high, so many viewers, especially middle-class families and working professionals, prefer a Tuesday or Wednesday show when it’s more affordable. People are also now more careful about what they spend on. They often wait for initial reviews and audience reactions before deciding whether a film is worth seeing in a theater,” said film producer Anand Pandit.

At the same time, filmmakers are making more genre-specific films for specific audiences instead of trying to please everyone. Such films may start slowly but will pick up as the right audience finds them, Pandit added.

Read also | First-day bumper openings wane as word-of-mouth wins over star power

“I think we’re seeing signs of more staying power among some films, though I wouldn’t call it a uniform trend yet. What’s particularly encouraging is that some of the strongest examples have come from medium-sized, story-driven films, suggesting that sustained audience interest isn’t necessarily limited to big Hindi or pan-India mainstays,” said Ashish Saksena, COO, BookMy -S Cinemas.

The platform is seeing audiences plan theater trips around their individual schedules, with working professionals, college students and families increasingly finding weekdays that work for them, Saksena added. This creates an opportunity for films with strong audience appeal to continue to build throughout the week, even after the initial marketing hype has died down.