Chennai Express Advance Booking: Detailed Report

The advance booking of Chennai Express is on across the country. The film will be releasing on around 700-800 screens at multiplexes tomorrow, with an average of 5-6 shows per multiplex. A few multiplexes have cramped in as many as 12-13 shows on Thursday itself, which was possible only because of the films short runtime (2 hours 22 mins).

Before we get to the advance booking response, lets talk a little on why postponing the film by a day (from 8th to 9th Aug) was a masterstroke by UTV Motion Pictures and Shahrukh Khan. Since Chennai Express is now releasing on a normal Friday, single-screens will be running the film for a minimum of 7 days, from 9th to 15th August. What that effectively means is, Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai Dobaara will only have a partial release on the day of its release – full-fledged at multiplexes, but very limited release on a National holiday for Independence Day. So, Chennai Express will get 3 holidays (including Sunday) at single-screens, while OUATIMD will miss out on a major holiday.

We have said this before, we say it again, Ekta Kapoor should never have postponed her film. There are rumours that it was a political decision (Raj Thackeray), while others say Shahrukh Khan requested Jeetendra to postpone the film. Either way, even though it was Balaji who first announced their film for Eid, Chennai Express has walked away with the best release date of the year! And what’s more the film will have a massive release at multiplexes on 8th August.

Now, coming to the advance booking, it is phenomenal all over. There are reports that entire shows have been block-booked by corporates at quite a few places. Quite a few exhibitors, distributors and trade gurus that we spoke to, are confident that Chennai Express will open to record-breaking numbers. More so because, ticket prices at multiplexes have been hiked quite significantly. The average all India hike is around 10-15%, a few exhibitors haven’t increased the ticket prices, but a few theatres have increased the price by as high as 30-35%.

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City-wise Advance booking, the detailed report.

1. Mumbai City – Huge release in Mumbai on Thursday, Chennai Express is releasing in around 90 theatres on more than 140-150 screens! The advance booking is quite good, given the fact that not many are even aware of the fact that it is releasing on Thursday evening. About 35-40% tickets have been sold so far.

2. Bangalore – Excellent response in Bangalore, with quite a few shows sold out. Tickets are still easy to find, but if you live in Bangalore and plan to watch the film on Thursday, book your tickets soon. 50-60% tickets sold out as of Wednesday evening.

3. Hyderabad – Limited release on Thursday here. At the time of writing this, advance booking was open at around 10-12 screens. The response is outstanding, most shows sold out in advance!

4.  Mangalore – Only two multiplexes in the small coastal city of Mangalore. One multiplex is running 8 shows on Thursday, and the advance book is around 20-25%. The other has around 5 shows on two screens. Booking opened late yesterday evening, shows are filling up quickly.

5. Kolkata – The city of Shahrukh Khan! He is insanely popular here, and that reflects in the advance booking. Very few people buy tickets in advance here, but a few shows of Chennai Express are about 80-90% booked! The film will do well in Bengal.

6. NCR Region – Some theatres screening as many as 14 shows here! Advance booking pretty good, around 40-50% tickets sold out. A select few shows are sold out.

7. Chennai – Even though the title has ‘Chennai’, the film has a huge competitor in Vijay’s Thalaivaa which also releases on 9th August. But advance booking for the Tamil film was stopped because of ‘violent theatres’ from certain political outfits. There is uncertainty over the Tamil films release here, which might be a massive boost for Chennai Express. The advance booking for CE is good for Thursday, most shows are filling up pretty quickly.

8. Patna – The capital city of Bihar has seen a good response too. Apart from one multiplex (Cinepolis), most are running only two shows on Thursday.

9. Chandigarh – Wide release here, but the advance booking has been pretty poor. Only about 10% tickets sold.

10. Valsad – Lukewarm response in one of the cities in Gujarat.

Overall, Chennai Express is certain to break the ‘preview shows’ record which is currently held by 3 Idiots (2.75 crore). But this will also be the widest release for any film the day before its full-fledged release.

More updates on Chennai Express coming soon. Follow us on Twitter or Facebook for all the updates!