Chennai: A Tamil film can now start at 6 in the morning, and the last show can begin after midnight and run to 2.30 am. The state has made it official for the first week of every new release.
The Tamil Nadu government announced on Tuesday that theatres across the state can screen newly released Tamil films for up to six shows a day for one week from the date of release. The Tamil Nadu Cinemas (Regulation) Rules, 1957, will be amended to allow it, according to an official release.
Six shows will also be permitted on local festival days, public holidays, Saturdays and Sundays.
The decision was taken on the directions of Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay, the release said, and followed representations from various film producers' associations to the government.
It is an expansion of a concession the state had already given. After the TVK-led government took office, theatres were allowed five shows a day for seven days from the date of release, and five shows on festival days, public holidays and weekends.
For producers, the arithmetic is straightforward. A big Tamil release earns most of its money in the first week, and the number of shows in that week decides how much of the opening can be converted into collections. An extra show per screen per day, across hundreds of screens, is a large number.
For the audience, the 6 am show has become a ritual of its own in the state, with first-day crowds treating the earliest screening as the one to be seen at. Six shows push that further into the night.
The order lands in the middle of the Diwali season, when the state's screens are the most contested real estate in the country. Suriya's 'Scene' and Nayanthara's 'Mookuthi Amman 2' are among the releases that will get the extra shows.
What the rules do not settle is the other side of the trade. Theatre owners have to staff and run screens until 2.30 am.
Exhibition in Tamil Nadu has been through a hard few years, with streaming taking the first window from theatres. Six shows is the state's bet that more screenings can win some of that audience back.