2.0 beats Baahubali 2, to release in ten thousand screens

Rajinikanth's releases have historically been extremely profitable for theatre owners and distributors, because a superstar film is nothing short of a celebration for the actor's legions of fans.
Poster of Rajnikanth-starrer 2.0
Poster of Rajnikanth-starrer 2.0

CHENNAI: Rajinikanth's releases have historically been extremely profitable for theatre owners and distributors, because a superstar film is nothing short of a celebration for the actor's legions of fans. While other stars need a holiday release to maximise the returns, a Rajini release is itself treated as a holiday. In fact, Petta, which is scheduled for a Pongal 2019 release, will be the actor's first festival release since Chandramukhi. Though his Kabali (2016) had a great hype machine in place, it under-performed at the box office. Rajini's next film, Kaala, was almost conspicuous in its lack of promotions, but went on to do well. And now, the hype is back with 2.0. 

2.0, India's first fully shot in 3D film, is Rajini biggest film to date. The Shankar-directorial also stars Akshay Kumar, possibly the most bankable star in Hindi cinema after the Khan triumvirate. The film has surpassed Baahubali 2: The Conclusion in the total number of screens it is releasing in globally with over 10,000 screens purportedly screening 2.0 as against the 9000 screens for Baahubali.

Veteran distributor Tirupur Subramanyam calls this is the best advance booking ever for a Rajini film, surpassing Kaala, Kabali, Linga and Kochaidaiyaan. "This is the largest release in Tamil Nadu for sure. 700-800 screens will be showcasing only 2.0, of which 400-450 are screening it in 3D. All those screens which are showing it in 3D are sold out for the first day. You have to remember, unlike Sarkar, this is a weekday we are talking about.

A good test would be to look at Sunday bookings, which as things stand are almost 80 per cent full. We also have to thank the Tamil Nadu government which has said that we can have five shows on weekdays and six on weekends." (with inputs from Navein Darshan)

HC restrains ISPs from airing movie
The Madras High Court restrained the BSNL and other government and private internet service providers, numbering over 12,500, including Tamil Rockers, from airing 2.0

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