Battle for screens with onslaught of new movies

There is currently a huge battle to grab the maximum number of screens going on in Tamil right now for the current and upcoming releases. Let's look at the situation and casualties,

• In Multiplexes, Barfi and Sundarapandian are holding tightly to the screens since their release last week. In single screens, the theatre owners want to retain/increase the shows for Sundarapandian.

• Charulatha has been eyeing for 1000 screens to earn the bragging rights. However, they are unlikely to find that many available screens across Kannada, Telugu and Tamil with around 700 screens confirmed so far. The screen count is relatively high compared to the modest amount of demand/hype seen for this movie. The exhibitors are waiting for the movie's Word of Mouth/result before they decide to free up or drop shows to make room for Thaandavam.

• UTV's Thaandavam reported to have gone through censor process has been booking screens for releasing on September 28th. Many of the screens from the current movies will have to be re-allocated to Thaandavam, possibly nipping the box office run prematurely for Sundarapandian, Charulatha and Saattai. 

• Naduvule Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom smartly backed out to avoid sabotaging the chances as this movie appears to be a sure winner based on unanimous positive feedback from the preview show. So, the NKPK team has decided to wait for the right time to release.

• Distribution circle believes that Saattai may be on the receiving end of the whip lash as a result of screen-grabbing war. If Saattai fails to live-up tall, this may get trampled.

• Interestingly, Maattrraan has not started blocking the theatres for October 12th as of yet. They are still waiting for Harris Jayaraj to complete the re-recording. All these massive pile-up of movies and uncertainties could have been avoided if Maattrraan had confirmed their release date.