Avatar 2: Disney’s Demand Shocks Telugu Distributors

This week, it is going to be a mega spectacle on the silver screen as James Cameron’s latest film “Avatar: The Way Of Water”, which is simply called Avatar 2, is getting ready to hit cinemas on December 16th across the globe. Meanwhile, the film’s producer Disney planned a mighty release in India as well in many languages like Hindi, Telugu and Tamil, as this sequel is coming 13 years after the original. 

“Avatar: The Way Of Water” is 3 hours 12 minutes in length and was recently censored with UA in India. The film already made ₹7 crores gross for the Opening Day in India if the pre-sales of tickets is anything to go by, as almost 1 lakh tickets were sold through PVR, Cinepolis and Imax, while single screens sold another lakh tickets. And for the first weekend, already Avatar 2 posted ₹16 crores gross collection from these multiplexes. And the buzz is that the film might post huge numbers around ₹50-80 crores gross on its first weekend in India, beating many big Bollywood movies. 

While that’s the case at the national level, in Telugu states, Distributors of single screens and Tier 2 towns are in a big shocker from the makers of Avatar 2, they say. Apparently, the company’s India arm UTV is handling the release directly with many Telugu distributors and exhibitors as the two top Telugu producers refused to finally give the amount Disney quoted, as per rumours. The thing is that Disney is offering a huge share, nearly 30-40% for distributors of Avatar 2 in Telugu states, but with a condition that they should showcase the film even during Sankranthi season. 

For local distributors and exhibitors who could enter into an ‘agreement’ that they will not replace the film even during the Sankranthi season, Avatar 2 will be given. This has put everyone in a fix because they want to showcase Waltair Veerayya and Veerasimha Reddy for Pongal. We have to see what happens.