Entertainment
E-motion-al ‘Piku’ gets over Rs.25 crore opening weekend
New Delhi: Director Shoojit Sircar’s slice-of-life family entertainer “Piku” has got a thumbs up not just from the film fraternity and critics, but also movie buffs. The medium budget film is steadily climbing the ladder of success at the box office and has collected over Rs.25 crore in its opening weekend.
The film, which released on May 8 across 1,300 screens in India and in around 200 screens globally, features megastar Amitabh Bachchan, Deepika Padukone and Irrfan Khan.
“Piku” raked in Rs.5.32 crore on Friday, and witnessed a phenomenal growth via positive word-of-mouth on Saturday with Rs.8.70 crore and Rs.11.20 crore on Sunday — taking its combined total to Rs.25.22 crore in its opening weekend, according to trade analyst Taran Adarsh.
“Take a bow, Team #Piku… Just look at the REMARKABLE growth in the biz of #Piku. Proves yet again CONTENT is KING,” Adarsh tweeted on Monday.
The viewership of the film — which has ‘Motion Se Hi Emotion’ as its tagline — is only poised towards growth, say other industry members.
“The response has been superb till now,” Deepak Sharma, chief operating officer, PVR Pictures Ltd, told IANS, and added that the movie went houseful over the weekend.
“It took a drastic jump in collection due to the word-of-mouth publicity since Friday. It’s too early to decide the future of ‘Piku’, but I think it will have a long run in cinemas,” Sharma added.
Devang Sampat, business head – Strategy, Cinepolis, said the film’s “appealing content and word of mouth is sure to attract and sustain the momentum of the weekend”.
“It is sure to sustain the footfalls for the weekdays as well. It has registered over 60 percent occupancy on an average over the weekend in all Cinepolis theatres,” Sampat added.
Served with dollops of comedy and emotions, “Piku”, which stresses on the camaraderie between a father (Amitabh) and daughter (Deepika), has received rave reviews. Even in theatres, it has spread loud cheers and applause by people of all age groups.
As far as the future of “Piku” on the box office is concerned, it will be interesting to see how well the film will do in upcoming weeks where it is likely to face stiff competition from Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma-starrer period crime drama film “Bombay Velvet”, which releases on Friday.
In the week thereafter, there is the much-awaited “Tanu Weds Manu Returns”.
Entertainment
Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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