THE New Business With Box-Office
iView Author: Proneet Dutta (Dimapur, India)
Email: withheld
THE NEW BUSINESS WITH BOX-OFFICE
Business Talk With Taran Adarsh
indiafm.com
Box-office rewards or critics’ awards?February 11, 2009 – 08:37 IST
4 and 5 star rating by reviewers doesn’t imply that the film is a ‘Hit’ at the cash counters. Both are two different things. Let me explain.
Film reviews are out — in print and on television channels and also on web — on Friday itself and even though the first day may not have come to a close, a film-maker starts calling his/her film a success only because a reviewer or two has been overtly generous with star ratings in the review.
Turning a blind eye [ignorant?] to the box-office numbers, the film-maker starts calling up his friends and well-wishers, “Apni picture Hit ho gayee yaar.” This, even before the first show has commenced at plexes/single screens. Most film-makers don’t even bother to check with various distributors across the country as to how the film is behaving in various circuits.
The question is, is the film-maker ready to face the truth?
Misconception 2… It’s about the numbers provided by distributors/exhibitors to the media. When a distributor/studio claims their film has done a business of Rs. 45 crores in its opening weekend, most media persons as also the aam aadmi reading the news assume that the entire amount [Rs. 45 crores] has gone into the distributors’ pockets.
In fact, some wannabes masquerading as analysts are completely clueless about the difference between gross and nett figures and also the eventual amount that comes in as distributors’ share. Worse, even film-makers, especially the new breed, are completely ignorant about it. Haina kamaal ki baat?
Every person has a right to express his/her opinion in a democratic setup, but what really shocks me is the yardstick most critics use to review commercial/masala films and art house cinema. I know of a lot of critics who look down upon masala films because it’s fashionable to do so. I know of a lot of these types who heap lavish praises on art house/middle of the road cinema for fear of being ridiculed on the blogs run by some ‘intellectual’ types. They fear, if we run down a film made by an ‘intellectual’, we’ve had it on these blogs.
Baap re baap, save us from these fake pseudos and their biradari!
These are the words of one of Hindi cinema s most credible trade analyst Taran Adarsh clearly peeved by the recent suspicious business that is happening within the trade of box office . the moment a film releases contradictory claims within as far as box-office figures are concerned start circulating everywhere . each & every trade analysts (& there are quite a few now ) start to have different claims about a particular movie . A prime example is the recent Dev d Anurag kashyap’s modern day ode to Sarat Chandra ’s Devdas not only has had mixed reviews but also mixed & confusing box-office results . sample this –
1.Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Dev D has taken its nett total to around 6.50 crore in four days by grossing around one crore nett on Monday. The film managed fairly good collections on Monday which were less than 30% lower than its Friday figures. The film was best in Bangalore with over 70% collections on Monday.
Dev D is also faring well in Mumbai/Thane, Pune, Delhi NCR, Chandigarh and Kolkata. The film should cross the 8 crore nett mark in its first week.
2. Bollywood box-office report of the week
February 11, 2009 2:00:43 PM IST
Abid, Bollywood Trade News Network
As we had said last week, there was something unpredictable about DEV D and that it was definitely awaited by a section of the audience and had the potential of springing a surprise! It did, though at select multiplexes of Bombay, Bangalore and Delhi-NCR. And given the genre and the cast, it is quite creditable. Abhay Deol deserves credit for the opening as its clear now that the class audience now associates him with moderate budget quality films. Released at 85 cinemas of Bombay-Thane (by UTV Motion Pictures) DEV D, the opening day saw dull collections (alright in cities like Delhi and Bangalore) which picked up on Saturday and Sunday, in multiplexes and good cinemas, frequented by the class audience. Trade predicts that DEV D may work in select cinemas of ‘A’ centres on the strength of the youth audience. In the Overseas, DEV D with just a handful of prints has surprised by grossing $10,950 from the US.3
Dev D pockets Rs 95 million over weekend at BO
By Indiantelevision.com Team
(9 February 2009 10:00 pm)4.
Midweek: ‘Dev D’ fair at handful of plexes, overall disappointing!
- By Taran Adarsh, February 10, 2009 – 08:50 IST5 .Trade analyst Vinod Mirani gives the box office verdict
Anurag Kashyap’s Dev D found much appreciation from the critics. Unfortunately, that did not translate into good box office collections.
Dev DCast: Abhay Deol, Mahi Gill, Kalki Koechlin, Dibyendu Bhattacharya.
Director: Anurag Kashyap.
Well-made contemporary take on Devdas, great music, good performances.Second half tends to drag, abrupt end.
Number of weeks: New.
BO Verdict: Poor opening.
So while number 1 & 2 have given the hit tag to Dev D , No 3 has called it a super hit , No 4 Taran Adarsh himself calls it an average fare .Mr Mirani has already called it a flop . How contradictory can that be ? Anurag must be licking his lips as he has tasted all kinds of results , from 1 extreme to another with one film .
This isn’t the first time bit has happened as other films previously too has had mixed results like these & it has been happening far too frequently . Mr Mirani specifically has acquired a habit of calling all small films flop . he had done that with Aamir , Wednesday , Welcome to Sajjanpur calling it flop 9n its first 3 days itself . in some cases retracting after others in the trade started calling them success. Clearly there is an agenda here which confuses the viewer wether a film is really a success & it must be demoralizing for a filmmaker as well as he doesn’t wether he should celebrate or think about what wen wrong .
It clearly shows there is a bias in the industry . we can see that with how certain films are perceived by certain trade pundit .Komal Nahata rubbishes other movies but has golden words for a film like Hello a b-grade adaptation of a very good film friendly novel . while the novel had heart the film neither had soul or vision But Mr Nahata seems to love it . CNN-IBN calls Slum dog Millionare a super hit while the trade calls it an average success in bigger centres only .the bias is quite clear & is extremely dangerous for a young filmmaker with no contacts who can be crushed by these monsters who are ready swallow the smaller fish & give cherry to the bigger ones .
Talking about bias , one can clearly feel that there is no love lost between Anurag kashyap & Tarn Adarsh . this is clearly felt in Mr Adarsh concluding words in the previous article as well as this one –
Business Talk With Taran Adarsh
As for DEV D, the film has had a decent run at few plexes of big centres, but the business is below the mark in several circuits. On Monday night, a top notch producer had a screening of his new film [slated for release this Friday] for the multiplex personnel exclusively [attended by this writer as well]. Believe me, almost everyone was of the opinion that 4 and 5 star ratings, of late, haven’t helped movies gather any speed at the ticket counters.Talking of DEV D, it will have to rely on its India theatrical business to cover its costs. The film has had a miniscule release in Overseas [the videshi junta doesn't take to such films] and the returns are negligible.
The Satellite price for ‘A’ certified films or films that cannot be enjoyed by the family audiences [DEV D is one of those] is not bright either. In any case, the Satellite price is down by 40%-50% of late. The same yardstick applies for the Home Video rights. The music rights were sold quite some time back, so it would be interesting to see where DEV D stands at the end of the day
His references to blogs are clearly a dig at Anurag & his escapades at passion . that Mr adarsh is an honest trade analyst comes from the fact that he gives us the real picture of Dev D taking a good start at some multiplexes . His honesty inspite of his not liking the box-office results on bit is commendable . but his his last line clearly reminded me of Gabbar saying to kalia –’Ab tera kya hoga Kalia’ . I think Mr adarsh is a respected man & as a trade an analyst should keep your emotion away from your job . if a small cost film with no stars or a super hit director takes a decent opening even at few centres ,it is indeed a commendable results & should be encouraged by a man like you . wether you like a movie or not is another thing , but encourage a new voice’s success as you have wonderfully done with so many other new voices
These are dangerous times with each & every trade analyst calling a film a hit or a flop according to his/her dislikes or bias .In such times honesty is needed so that a film lover like me who loves cinema knows the true & real picture of a film s result at the ticket window rather than get confused with the new business that has started with the box office .
–
Proneet Dutta
dimapur , nagaland
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Biased opinions par mat jao,apnee akal lagao;ask the friends who had seen the movie and knows ur taste as well.Best way to get preview of film…It is not at all necessary to rush for 1st day 1st show if u r not die hard fan of the director/actor/star.It does not matter to me,that it is Taran Adarsh or Anurag Kashyap.I am going to spend my money in it and want fultoo paisa vasool from the film.Interaction of film with heart & soul is essential fact.Critics trash American Desi but i like it..For first time viewing(09 years age),I find Kaagaz ke Phool boring.Each age group and thinking analogy clump together to make one’s taste.Just enjoy it on dish tv after 2 month of release if u canot afford to take risk.This clash of opinion between trade pundits is unending and futile.
i think the box-office calculations involving cash-flow should be regulated and standardised. that way, nobody can make tall claims and false claims that their movie is the biggest sucess in history of cinema etc. i recall OSO, SiK and Ghajini doing this; with skewed numbers. we are never sure whether they are talking abt revenues or the net profit
also, things get falsely reported. a case in point is mangal pandey…although the movie did not stay long at BO to be declared a hit, there were reports that the movie had a fantastic opening and the collections were good, ie. movie recovered the cost.
One thing I don’t understand….what has a common man got to do with the box office results for a film….and when did critics and reviewers turn box office pundits….The job is for a reviewer is simple…review the film…tell us about its merits/demerits and your opinion of the film as a whole….whether it will succeed in A to Z centres is beside the point…If a film is not succeeding at A or Z centres, does that ensure that it is a bad film?
Also, whatever taran adarsh may be ..he is a fully faltoo reviewer….study any 2-3 review of his and you will see the basiic structure irrespective of the film in question.
Nice Article Proneet. But why are you so concerned with whatever bullshit that Bastard Taran Adarsh Writes..
just learn to ignore. BoxOffice India gives good raw numbers and one can decipher easily how well a movie has done. Dev.D has some impressive numbers!
Nice article. I wanted to do this at the time of ‘rab ne bana di jodi’. There were figures from 50% to 90% being quoted for revenues on the first weekend. Till date, nobody knows whether the movie has done well or not. In case of Ghajin at least there was uanimity in the numbers as it had opened with 100% collections.
The definition of hit is earning at least double of what is invested. So, small films become ‘hits’ even when they don’t do a roaring business because they are made with lesser investment. A movie like ‘Hello’ can be termed a hit in this context.
These numbers are being blatantly used now a days, to fool the audience. Promote the movie you want to promote by inflating collections and run down the movie you want to run down, by calling it a non grosser. Nobody would ever come to know.
I think the best way to deal with this would be a ban on declaring collections before the movie completes a one week run. By that time, the picture is clear and people know for a fact whether the movie is doing well or not.
Anurag’s response to this _fare_ treatment in Rediff was so cool!
De Critique apparently likes only one movie other than ones made by REALLY-BIG-BANNERS(Why? Do they _treat_ him a lot better?)… i.e., a movie created by his father — Gupt Gyan.
http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/movies/cast/3515/index.html
Most probably all his assumptions about A-certificate(no, may be all!) movies is due to the outcome of this classic. That’s TaRan AdarSH’s Gupt Gyan! :D
well maybe anurag kashyap can disclose how much money he has stocked up in his bank lockers post Dev D
well written and very apt article…you are true while saying that these trade analyst speak about the business of the film in a way they feel right which in most cases may not be the accurate picture of how the film has been perceived. And I do not understand why a trade analyst like Taran Adarsh want to critic a film. He might be a credible trade analyst but that only means he can tell which film might do well and which might not. But film as a art form is separate from its box office collections. A film which according to Mr Adarsh is a piece of shit might be a cult art in its own way and poor Mr Adarsh will not have a slight inclination on what he has seen or written about. I was literally laughing while reading his reviews for Dev D. He only proves his minuscule knowledge of films and film making with his reviews each friday..
@ravi, BOI is full of shit and as skewed as all the rest sites. According to BOI, no SRK movie has flopped and any movie with Aamir, Akshay or a Bachchan has lower BO numbers than reported anywhere else.
There is no reliable BO reporting when it comes to Indian cinema.
In my exdperience I have only found BoxOfficeIndia.com credible. In their articles they may have biases but while providing the numbers and verdicts I feel they are quite fare. As far as their bias towards SRK is concerned they do have a bias for him when they are talking about prospective big hits but i have never seen them giving misguiding numbers. Case in point being Kal Ho Na Ho and main Hoo Naa. Both the films are regarded as Superhits/Blockbusters but the truth is that while KHNH was a big success only in Big cities it wasn’t enough to call it a Superhit universally so they have given a hit verdict for it. And Main hoo Naa did have a big opening but didn’t went on to become blockbuster as widely believed. BOI has rightly labelled it as hit. Also they have labelled Paheli and Swades as flops so its not as if no SRK film has flopped for them. Also if you check their website today they have clearly mentioned that Billu has got a poor opening. So they are definitely not biased towards SRK as far as numbers and verdicts are concerned.
Most of the other sources have limited access to Box office results so they give verdicts according to it(indiafm) or just based on the opening(rediff). While BOI waits for real numbers before officially putting them and if numbers from all the places do not come they wait for it and categorically mention. But this all definitely doen not mean that the numbers stated by BOI are 100% correct but atleast they aim to as getting correct figures from the smaller towns is not an easy task. But with the arrival of corporates and professionalism numbers provided are more accurate. One more thing many sources give verdicts based on the % occupancy in theatres which is not the right way as if a small film has a big release so obviously its occupancy is bound to be low in terms of percentage. At the end of the day only the cost of the film and distributor share(gross earnings-(Entertainment tax+multiplex share/theatre rentals)) matters.
Also most of the sources have obvious bias depending on whether or not they liked the film. I believe film criticing and trade analysis should not be mixed.
Good comment Shimit. I hope what you say about boxoffice india is true and they continue in that fashion. But the fact is common man doesn’t check facts on boxoffice.com. He believes the noise made by the media.
I hope boxoffice india continues in this fashion. But the fact is common man doen’t check facts with such reliable sources. He believes the noise made by the media.