Holi joins list of lucrative festive period for movie releases; offers a colourful lineup this year

Festival weekends are considered one of the most lucrative periods for film releases and box office collections are proof that the holiday period boosts earnings. Filmmakers prefer saving dates of their film release in advance to cash in during the period. While Eid, Christmas and Diwali are some of the favourite festivals for film releases, the festival of colours, Holi, has also been added to the holiday list.

A look at the box office collections of last year’s release "Badrinath ki Dulhania" starring Alia Bhatt and Varun Dhawan shows how profitable the Holi weekend turned out for the films. The romantic comedy which hit theatres on March 10, 2017, earned a whopping Rs 55 crore in just four days. The film did not lose steam on the day of festival as well which was March 13 and went to collect Rs 12 crore. Overall the film grossed Rs 114 crore.

This is not a one off case as films released during Holi in previous years as well managed to keep the cash registers ringing. "Jolly LLB" starring Boman Irani and Arshad Warsi, released in 2013 saw its business escalate during the Holi break. Even as the film saw a downtrend in the second week, earnings picked up during the festive weekend.

The court room drama was not well received during its initial days, but went on to collect Rs 1.35 crore on the second Wednesday from release, just ahead of Holi, taking the film’s 13-day total to Rs 27.66 crore.

Following the trend, filmmakers have been making efforts to book a slot during the Holi break. The festive break for 2019 has already been taken by Akshay Kumar for his film "Kesari", which is based on the battle of Saragarhi.

Holi may not be the most-sought after holiday period for a film's release and producers continue to prefer bigger festivals such as Eid, Diwali and Christmas, as school examinations end prior to these festivals and most of them are on an extended break.

Although not many big banner films are likely to release this time around, movie buffs will surely be entertained by an interesting set of films from two different genres. Anushka Sharma’s third home production, "Pari", which is a horror film is all set to hit theatres on March 2.

On the other hand, the romcom "Veerey ki Wedding" starring Pulkit Samrat and Kriti Kharbanda will also hit screens.

Hollywood film buffs can enjoy Jennifer Lawrence's "Red Sparrow" and "Death Wish", which will feature Bruce Willis.