Single Screen Film Theaters In Hyderabad To Shut Down Temporarily?

Blame it on the dearth of films and lack of occupancy! Single screen theaters in Hyderabad and various parts of Telangana have reportedly decided to shut down their operations. The news has come in as a shocker to all the entertainment lovers. The decision has been taken by various exhibitors and theatre owners due to lack of feed (film releases) and poor occupancy (lack of audience in theaters) capacity.

So far in this year, only two films – HanuMan and Tillu Square – have turned out to be hits. And for the rest of the films there was hardly any occupancy. Small films that have released after Sankranti and for this summer hardly had any takers and tanked at the box office without any notice. None of the films did well at the box office because of poor content. So with no big-ticket releases and producers not willing to release their films during IPL, exhibitors have decided to shut down the theaters temporarily. They felt that they cannot bear the overheads (operations cost) and run the theaters to empty galleries. The decision will help them save costs like electricity charges and other daily expenditures.

With film business in Hyderabad and other parts of Telangana facing huge crises, theaters are likely to be shut from May 17 till June. Exhibitors felt that they can reopen theaters once a slew of films that are lineup for release in June are cleared. Exhibitors are hoping that Tollywood’s dry spell would end in June and audiences flock to theaters. When we reached out to Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce (TFCC), a member of the association said that they have not got any official notice regarding the temporary closure of theaters. He however added that it was a decision taken on their (exhibitors) own. But this is not the first time that theaters have decided to shut down operations on their own. Earlier too, during Covid, some theaters have closed down operations voluntarily.