The cinemas in Maharashtra opened doors to patrons today (22nd Oct) almost 3 months after most other parts of the country. The response was muted not only in terms of returning audience but also the number of cinemas which actually opened. Generally most of the cinemas remain shut and will target Diwali for an opening.

There were two new Hindi films released with Babloo Bachelor and Bhavai with the latter having a little more audience. These films also released in other circuits but it was poor response. Bhavai seems to be a Gujarat based story so that circuit could do better but it did open well there either. Bell Bottom also saw a release in Maharashtra but there was not much of an audience.

The best footfalls as far as Mumbai city goes which opened more cinemas as compared to rest of Maharashtra came for the Hollywood films be it Shang Chi, No Time To Die, Dune or Venom 2 - Let There Be Carnage with No Time To Die and Venom to be lead the way. 

There is a lot of work to be done in Maharashtra to get cinemas to open as many have been shut for 18 months now and lets see how many open up by Diwali. The business in the state is going to take time recover and may well be one of the worst affected by the pandemic.