Saturday, March 5, 2022

Suriya 's litmus test with Etharkkum Thunindhavan

 


Suriya's Etharkkum Thunindhavan releasing in theaters on March 10th is his first theater release since September 20 2019 , when Kappaan was released. In the period it between , he kept himself in public  by releasing his films on OTT platform. Soorarai Pottru and Jai Bhim are the two releases in last 2  years andmon Amazon Prime. Both the films were big hits on this  platform. 

Theater box office records his last release Kappaan as average which means that it gave a marginal profit. Just before  that in same year NGK was released. It received bad reviews all over and with OTT- TV rights, it could have covered the cost but for theaters it was a loss. In 2018, Suriya  gave a hit with Thaana serandu kootam. Suriya's Andhra - TS market will be also dicey as Prabhas Radhe Shyam is releasing on March 11.

Theater owners still have a grudge against Surya for giving two film to OTT. As ET producer is Sun Pictures, this will not be an issue. Secondly, Ajith's Valimai has not been the gold mine that theatres had hoped it would be. So ET is the next bet.

On the ground, realities are different. Firstly are the fan clubs mechanism operational at releasing stations and on social media ?  After a two year hiatus , are the fan clubs battle ready ?. Second is that unlike Ajith who came after Nerkonda Paarvai in 2019 and received a bumper opening with Valimai, Suriya is no King of Opening. Here again, March 10 is no festival date. The drawing power or the connect that he has kept through OTT releases with his core audience will be put to test. One is that a chunk of those who likes his films on OTT might wait it out to see on small screen and it means that ET will show whether he has his STAR power still intact or lost sheen. ET is said to be one of the big ticket films for Sun Pictures. As they hold the TV - digital- OTT rights, the investment will be recovered. The box office is very crucial for Surya as he comes after more than 2 years to seek theater goers approval, the real backbone of any movie Star The film is releasing in 5 languages
Career wise Suriya's future film outings are promising- a film with director Bala and Vetrimaaran

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