ET Intelligence Group: After an exceptionally good September quarter, the Hindi film industry has begun the December quarter on a sombre note.

Each of the 14 movies released in October has failed to generate sufficient footfalls at theatres. What’s unique about this is not the failure, but the fact that big studios and distributors backing these movies hardly invested in their pre-release marketing and promotion leaving moviegoers largely unaware of titles such as Dono, Mission Raniganj, Dhak Dhak, Ganapath, 12th Fail, Yaariyan 2, and Tejas among others.

The failure of these films also means the third quarter financial performance of the multiplex companies now depends heavily on the success of big titles including Dunki, Animal, Salaar, Tiger 3, Sam Bahadur and Merry Christmas which will be released later in the current quarter.

Some of the movies released in October are by well-known distributors and studios such as Pen Marudhar Entertainment (a distributor of Jawan), Viacom18 Studios, PVR Inox Pictures, AA Films, and Zee Studios.

Shaminder Malik, a trade analyst, expressed astonishment over the fact that so many movies were released in a single month yet the audience was unaware of them. “One cannot rely merely on word-of-mouth publicity as for it to work the audience at least should know about the release of a film,” he said, adding that a big studio can invest close to Rs. 200 crore on a film but follows a conscious strategy of not investing adequately in marketing the film.

On average, it is estimated that distributors spend Rs. 5 crores to Rs. 20 crores in marketing and promotion of a Hindi release.

“I was not even aware that 12th Fail was made by veteran director Vidhu Vinod Chopra. Distributors seem to be dumping content in theatres rather than having to compete with big titles in the coming months,” said Ameya Naik, founder of Fantasy Events, an event management company.

Through the sheer strength of word-of-mouth publicity, the film 12th Fail is gathering a gradual momentum in metro cities. The film has collected close to Rs. 8 crores on the budget of Rs, 10 crore-11 crore, cite analysts. According to them, after an encouraging response over the first weekend of release, distributors have undertaken the promotion of the film.

According to Girish Johar, a producer and a trade analyst, when a distributor refrains from investing adequately in the marketing of a film, it shows a lack of confidence in its success. “There has been no buzz for these films which is reflected in their fate at the box office. It is clear that these distributors knew these films did not shape up well.”

Atul Mohan, another trade analyst, hints at the possibility that distributors may have recovered money through the sale of digital and satellite rights before the theatrical release. “Given the lack of clarity about the success of these films, they did not want to invest incremental money in marketing.”

While the cricket World Cup is likely to have a bearing on the footfalls at theatres, Mohan believes that content plays a crucial role. “Biwi No. 1 was a super hit during the 1999 Cricket World Cup,” he added.

Investors will be closely tracking the industry developments to know whether multiplex companies are able to repeat their robust September quarter performance in the current quarter.