The advance booking of the big summer release Housefull 5 started on Saturday evening and the response was not as expected. The film does have positives so it was surprising that advances did not start better but there is still time and it has to do much better. The trailer of the film could have been better but the first impression with teaser and song were good.

The Housefull franchise has never seen strong advances and the openings and have always been decent to good and never really big but generally the films have all gone on to good numbers. The difference now post pandemic is that sequels hold much more value so on that you can expect a very good start of 20-25 crore nett but the initial advances do not suggest these numbers at the moment.

The film is also releasing on two versions with Housefull A and Housefull B and this industry does not like to make things easy for itself by doing this sort of stuff. There is hardly any repeat audience today so even if someone watches A its very unlikely they will watch B even if they like the film so this will not add to the business.

First the consumer has to make the decision whether to watch Housefull 5 or not and then when making a booking has to make a second decision as to watch A or B and this second decision can stop a sale unless they know exactly what it is. A second decison is the last thing you need with the present state of the box office.

The advances opened in Australia earlier and the biggest chain in Australia Hoyts has bookings for one Housefull only and the response there is actually good and better than most films this year if not all. There maybe nothing in this A and B thing and its just naturally a slow response in India but if its not affecting negatively its also not helping for sure.

Despite the advances not starting as they should the film can still do well and hopefully the advances will push on Wednesday and Thursday and also the better advances in overseas gives hope that India can also catch up. The film is offering music and entertainment and on top is a successful franchise with families and hopefully the film can click and do well.