MUMBAI: The 3D screening of the final Indian Premier League’s (IPL) match has succeeded in doing what the releases of the past few weeks have not managed to do. The screening of the final played out between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings on Sunday evening saw a massive turnout at the theatres, with most theatres having 90 – 100 per cent occupancy.

After a shaky response to the other matches that were screened, the multiplex chains had almost given up hope. But the encouraging response to the final match has given a new ray of hope to the plexes.

Almost all the theaters saw between 90 – 100% occupancy and the theater owners are now also thinking of screening other matches like the Champions League T20 and maybe other sporting events like football etc. However, plans will be to screen only the semi-final and final matches since that’s what the audience wants to watch at the theaters.

Speaking to Businessofcinema.com, Cinemax India senior vice president Devang Sampat says, “People want to spend money smartly, they want value for their money. When we started screening the IPL3, the response was very bad. We had only about 15% occupancy but during the last four semi finals, the occupancy went up to 45% and then to 70%. The final match saw 100% occupancy all across India. We will be looking at screening other matches too but maybe we’ll just screen the semi- final and final matches.”

Fun Cinemas COO Vishal Kapur adds, “The response to the final match has been good especially in Mumbai where we had four shows, out of which three were 2D and one was 3D and all of them were houseful. On the other hand, occupancy across the rest of the country was about 50%. The response to the 3D screening has been excellent. Looking at the response I feel that the semi-finals and finals of any sport should do well at the theaters.”

Inox senior vice president programming and distribution Utpal Acharya informs, “The response to the final has been very good. We had 100% occupancy. People went crazy watching the final match on 3D; they enjoyed the match like they would at the stadium. Having said that, next year, we will probably be screening only the semi-finals and the finals and about screening other sports we will evaluate things and take a call.”

At PVR, BIG Cinemas and Fame Cinemas properties, the average occupancy for the final match was between 90 – 100 per cent. The matches were screened around 800 screens in India.