Jacked! Blame It On Varun-Alia….Abbas-Mustan’s Machine Gets Meagre Theatres

Badrinath Ki Dulhaniya is not only Varun Dhawan’s eighth consecutive hit it is also a much bigger success than expected,thereby creating a bottleneck situation for the releases this week.

Most hard hit is Abbas-Mustan’s Machine launching Abbas Burmanwala’s son Mustafa as a leading man. Sources from the exhibitors’ sector say the number of theatres and screens allotted toMachine has been severely by Hurricane Badri.

“We have cut down the proposed  number of theatres by nearly half.We were going to allot 7-8 screens to Machine. But we will now have 2 or maximum 3 shows. Besides the blockbuster build of Badrinath’s boxoffice  there is  Disney’s  Beauty & The Beast,” says a well-placed source from a  leading multiplex chain.

Trade analyst Amod Mehra feels the bottleneck created by Badrinathat the boxffice is inevitable. “When a film becomes such a big hit asBadri then the films releasing next week automatically gets affected.  On top of that there is zero buzz regarding Machine. The trailer nor the music nor the publicity is up to the mark.  People are not even aware that such a movie is releasing.”

Adds  trade insider Atul Mohan,  “Badri has definitely benefited as it has achieved SUPERHIT status and   ‘plexes are known to give preference to a film which has won the audience. For Machine being a launchpad of son of a big director, it may look like less number of theatres.But strong word of mouth should help to convert to more screens. Also we have good new releases this week. Right now it’s wait and watch.”