Tomorrow, It was reported that the much-awaited Hollywood musical, michaelhad sold 78,000 tickets for the opening weekend and paid previews, indicating a promising start for the film in India. The momentum has become even stronger in less than 24 hours.
Exclusive: Michael crosses 1 lakh ticket sales mark in opening weekend; Paid previews are set to open at Rs. More than 1 crore; Hyderabad’s Prasad and ALLU cinemas are in overdrive
Now it has been revealed that Michael has crossed the milestone of 1 lakh ticket sales for the weekend and paid previews, which underlines the tremendous excitement surrounding the Michael Jackson biopic. As per the latest trends, the film has sold around 28,500 tickets for paid previews alone, the gross collection for these shows has been an impressive Rs. 97 lakh gross. As a result, paid preview collections are now expected to exceed Rs. Net mark of 1 crore as spot booking will also be for paid preview today.
Meanwhile, total ticket sales for the weekend and paid previews have reached 1.13 lakh tickets, with a strong Rs. 4.30 crore gross and counting. The biggest attraction of advance booking is the unprecedented response in Hyderabad. The iconic Prasad multiplex alone has sold 7,300 tickets for the weekend, an extraordinary number for just one cinema. What’s surprising is that Allu Arjun’s standalone property, ALLU Cinemas, has sold 6,500 tickets, a figure which is more than the combined tally of properties run by exhibition chains like MovieTime, Asian Cinemas and MovieMax.
The only factor that could spoil the game was the impact of negative reviews from the West. However, this hasn’t dampened the excitement even a bit, as tickets continue to be sold with every passing hour. Special screening of michaelThe event held yesterday at IMAX Wadala, Mumbai received an overwhelming response. In fact, the most common question asked by those walking out of the screening was how the reviews in the West could be so harsh. News spread quickly about the overwhelmingly positive reaction to the screening, and early reviews emerging locally indicated that the general public would accept the film wholeheartedly upon release.
