Weekend cheer for malls as Oppenheimer, Barbie drive high footfalls

NEW DELHI: It was a weekend cheer for malls as the rush to get the first glimpse of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie drove high consumer footfalls. For New Delhi’s Select Citywalk, footfalls during the weekend of July 22-23 were about 18%-20% higher on an average than its usual weekends and 10%-11% higher than the previous weekend. “It’s a rare occurrence to have two highly anticipated blockbuster releases on the same weekend. We anticipate the craze to continue or even rise, with an expected 7%-10% increase in footfalls next week,” said the mall’s director Yogeshwar Sharma.

Inorbit Mall in Mumbai’s Malad recorded its highest footfall of the current financial year on Sunday, claimed head of marketing Naviin Ibhrampurkar. Footfalls at the mall premise through the weekend almost doubled compared to the weekend of July 15-16. “We are expecting the numbers to grow further in the coming days,” said Ibhrampurkar.

Pune’s Pavillion Mall expects July to end with 15% higher footfalls. “At the moment, our cinema partners are admitting 30% more people than they did last month,” said centre director Kinjal Radia. The spectacle was somewhat similar in other places as well. Pacific Malls across Delhi for instance recorded about a 15%-16% higher footfalls during July 22-23 compared to the previous weekend. Executive director Abhishek Bansal said that people came dressed in pink to watch Barbie.
At Delhi’s DLF Avenue, cinema goers flocked to Cinepolis. More than 15% of Cinepolis’ patrons watched both the movies. Besides the release of the movies, end of season sale being offered by certain brands have also helped in adding to the footfalls.

“We have received a phenomenal response to the release of both the movies, leading to an increase in footfalls across our malls in Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida. We hope that more such content which appeals to the big screen audience is generated over the coming months and years,” said Pushpa Bector, executive director at DLF Retail.