Big budgets bring big responsibilities with them! Last weekend saw the release of the latest Pakistani film Ishrat Made in China”. The film opened in cinemas on the 3rd March all across the country which made it a Thursday release – a very unusual day to release one’s film. The film’s response was pretty lackluster, as the audience did not welcome it with open arms.
The film, over the weekend, was only able to collect a mere 20 to 25 lacs, which is a disastrous number for a film made on a whooping budget of approximately 14 crores.
The last Pakistani film to release “Khel Khel Mein” had done a lot of ground promotions through posters, streamers, TV ads, billboards and hoardings in cinemas. Ishrat Made In China on the other hand was to be seen no-where as the films trailer was not even run in cinemas when the year’s biggest film Spiderman released. The film failed to generate pre-hype.
Moreover, a film that is appreciated by cinema-goers tends to find its audience sooner or later, but in the case of Ishrat Made In China, the film could not generate any good word of mouth whatsoever.
This is undoubtedly sad news for the Pakistan film industry, which, due to COVID-19, has gone back to its revival days. Regardless, we can only keep our heads high and hope for the best.
This weekend, another film released – the Hollywood biggie, “The Batman”. The film managed to register the second biggest weekend for a film post-pandemic. It managed to gross a huge 4.5 crores over the 3-day weekend. This is the highest opening for any DC superhero film in Paksitan.The film also got rave reviews all over the world , despite being a very dark and grim movie.
The word of mouth is good and we feel the film will continue to run successfully until Ramzan. This might emerge as a blockbuster if it continues to hold well over the coming weeks, with there being no competition until Eid-ul Fitr.
Therefore, this weekend brought good and bad news for the industry with the hope that the future will be bright.
