Will 7am Arivu's pricing strategy back fire in the US?

US distributors of 7am Arivu may be bordering on over confidence as they decide to jack up the ticket price to $15/- as Velayudham is reaching out to the masses by discounting the ticket at $10/-. For a typical family of 3, this is a significant difference of roughly $14/-(~Rs.700/-) which could make an impact on which movie to watch first for Diwali. 

US Tamil people are determined to watch at least one of the 3 Diwali movies. It is unlikely scenario to watch 2 movies in theatres due to tough economic situations prevailing in the US. Tamilians in the US are extremely sensitive about ticket price and known for blaming the price gouging tactics adopted by prior Tamil new releases as the key reason for watching movies downloaded from internet.

One of our sources in the trade commented that if Velayudham gets better word of mouth, this pricing strategy could backfire for 7am Arivu as people may decide to watch Velayudham during the festival weekend and could push 7am Arivu for second weekend. Second risk is that the tickets in the US are not checked at individual screens but at the theatre entrance. This could introduce perverse incentive for people to buy tickets for Velayudham at $10 and switch to 7am Arivu after the show starts in the latter screen.

We will get you the BO numbers to see how the dynamics of the competition unfolds. Stay tuned...

- US BO Reporter