MUMBAI: Of the five releases last Friday, none drew any kind of interest due to the final three Indian Premier League (IPL) matches except the Mahesh Manjrekar movie.

The films that failed to make a mark include City Of Gold, Apartment, Bird Idol, Kuchh Kariye and Muskurake Dekh Zara.

Says Fun Cinemas COO Vishal Kapur, "Among all the films, Pathshala did good business but the rest failed."

Regarding the response to the 3D screening of the cricket matches, Kapur avers, "While it was full house for the finals in Mumbai, at other places it was 50 per cent occupancy. For the first semi-final, in which Mumbai Indians was involved, the occupancy in Mumbai was in the vicinity of 70 per cent while outside Mumbai, the occupancy was around 50 per cent. The other semi-final and the third place match drew around 50 per cent occupancy in Mumbai, while outside it was between 30 to 40 per cent."

Observes Cinemax India senior vice president Devang Sampat, "When we started screening the IPL3, the response wasn‘t encouraging. We got only about 15 per cent occupancy. But during the last two semi-finals, the occupancy went up to 70 and 45 per cent respectively. The final saw an almost 100 per cent occupancy."

All eyes now rest on Sajid Nadiadwala‘s multi-star cast Housefull that is the first big release after a two-month drought.