Bell the Cat.. Somebody..

The tamil movie screenings in different parts of USA is mostly managed by a group of individuals or by some locally formed club. But in recent times, especially after the huge marketing success of Sivaji - The Boss, some of the big names are entering the movie screening business in USA. While this may be good in terms of bringing professionalism, it has led to lack of personal touch and customer service. Some of these big names (Reliance, Sulekha etc) are going to run this like business which means they will try to maximize profit at any cost. What this means for regular filmgoer is higher ticket prices, fewer and even no shows in some of the areas. The recent incidents include cancellation of preview shows in some of the states for the movie Kuselan, very low collections for ATM, Kuselan and even Dasavatharam due to very high ticket price - $21 per ticket (it used to be $12 before "Sivaji - The Boss" days). The movie SAROJA is getting released this week here, which is very very late for a movie release. Since this movie has no big hero names, the corporates probably waited enough to make sure the movie is a hit before releasing the movie. Bad idea and this type of attitude will never fly with the audience here.

This is exactly what happened with satellite channels and cricket in USA. The satellite networks started showing cricket on TV and slowly the prices started going up and at one point they were charging as much as $300 for a 5 match one day series against Pakistan. What it led to is total boycott and viewers found other alternatives like internet.

As such it is easy to get DVD version of the movie relatively quickly here and given the current economy, we will have fewer families going to cinema hall if this trend continues.