World Cup impact: Houseful for morning show but few takers for matinee

CHENNAI: Morning shows were sold outbut by the time matinees started the crowd had become a trickle. Theatres acrossthe city saw a dip in the sale of tickets on Saturday as the weekend crowdstayed at home or headed to places screening the World Cup matchlive.At Sathyam Cinemas in Royapettah, things were moving at thepace of a mid-week day. "It feels like it is Wednesday when you don't get manypeople for a matinee," said an employee. Tamil release Kullanari Kuttam' farebetter, with only 57 of the 272 tickets remaining unsold. Yutham Sei' andPayanam' also managed to draw viewers. However, the Bollywood big-ticket releaseGame' had no takers, with a majority of the seats remaining vacant for thematinee and the evening shows. Blur, Sathyam Cinemas' gaming zone was the onlyplace which ran full as the match was screened live.Devi Multiplexon Anna Salai also had few visitors for the matinee show. "The first show wasfine. The crowd dropped when it came to the afternoon shows. There were also noadvance bookings for the evening shows as we are not screening any big-budgetmovies," said an ticket counter official.Abirami theatre onPurasawalkam High Road got advance bookings for the Dhanush-starrer Mappillai'only for Monday. "Telugu film Sakthi' did draw an audience despite the match,"said an employee.Most theatres said it would be business as usual onSunday. "More than 60% of tickets have been sold out for Sunday," said a Sathyamofficial.