ITV

Tag: Box Office

  • Force collects Rs 220 mn worldwide

    Force collects Rs 220 mn worldwide

    MUMBAI: Force, an offering from Vipul Amrutlal Shah and Fox Star Studios, has collecting Rs 220 million worldwide including Rs 160 million from India alone, in its opening weekend.

    The figures were released by the producers of the movie.

    “John has silenced his critics and now moved into the league of the best action heroes of our time,” said Shah, who released the film under his banner Sunshine Pictures.

    Averred Fox Star Studios CEO Vijay Singh, “Force is being appreciated across the country for its fantastic realistic action and good performances. It‘s a well made film with pace. Propelled by positive reviews and supported by great word-of-mouth, we hope to have a long run at the box office.”

  • Multiplex operators post weak recovery in FY’10

    The multiplex operators were up against the wall in FY’10. The first quarter was gobbled by a bitter row with the film producers, freezing fresh movie content from the Bollywood studios. Revenues went for a toss as they tried to source alternate content and tapped regional language movies.

    The bruise didn’t disappear in a hurry as the revenue-share arrangement increased their content costs. The release window shortened as film producers had to find space in the clutter. The situation worsened as most of the movies bombed at the box office.

    Corrective measures were taken and the major players hiked ticket prices while their expenses also deepened. Revenue for the fiscal jumped but operating profit took a knock.

    Revenue soars

    The combined turnover of the five listed cinema exhibitors stood at Rs 13.73 billion in FY’10, up 21.47 per cent over the earlier year. The major reason was hike in the ticket prices and some blockbuster movies in between (like 3Idiots, Ajab Prem Ki Gajab Kahani etc).

    Reliance Mediaworks, Fame India and Cinemax saw maximum growth in revenues, jumping 39.5 per cent, 28.7 per cent and 25 per cent for each of them. Inox Leisure saw a moderate 12.6 per cent growth, while PVR had a measly 3.2 per cent increase in its income.

    Higher expenses as distributor payout increases

    Multiplex operators had to cough out more to the film distributors due to the new revenue share agreement.

    Though the companies kept control over personnel costs, their interests in organic and inorganic growth led them to invest to build or acquire properties. This resulted in increase in expenses.

    Expenses in the fiscal stood at Rs 13.59 billion, up 24 per cent, from Rs 10.98 billion in FY09. (Disclaimer: All expenses figure are on approximate basis barring PVR, as the companies have not given the expenses for the exhibition segment separately.).

    Fame India, Reliance MediaWorks and Cinemax had seen over 30 per cent increase in their expenses during the fiscal, compared to the year-ago period.

    Inox saw a 16.5 per cent rise in expenses over the year-ago period, while PVR kept the expenses under control with just over one per cent increase over the earlier year.

    At the operational level, all the exhibitors had a bad year as between the two fiscals, their profit narrowed by 58.3 per cent in FY’10 over the year-ago period. The FY’10 operating profit stood at Rs 179.09 million as compared to operating profit of Rs 429.69 million.

    The companies who suffered the most were Fame India (down 80.3%), and Cinemax (down 64.07%). However, Reliance MediaWorks, which had suffered an operating loss from the exhibition sector during FY’09 (Rs 454.56 million), increased the losses by nine per cent to Rs 495.37 million in the fiscal 2009-10.

     

     

    The cinema exhibitors are expected to put up a better show in FY’11 with an increase in ticket prices and, hopefully, more successful movies.

  • Scripting a business for World Cinema

    A small group of 40-somethings is discussing Akira Kurosawa‘s film Seven Samurai in a roadside tea shop in Mumbai. The ravages of nature, the tension between good and evil and the painting-like visuals are heated points of discussion.

    It is this crowd that Shemaroo Entertainment is aiming to grow, as the home video major aims to grab a major slice of this premium segment in an otherwise cut-throat mass market driven by price wars.

    “While our main business will continue to be mainstream Bollywood, World Cinema will give us a niche, upscale market with pricing power,” says Shemaroo Entertainment director Hiren Gada.

    Shemaroo faces competition from Moser Baer which has assembled over 100 World Cinema titles, most of which are procured from Palador. The advantage Shemaroo has built over its home video rival is by striking an alliance with UTV. According to the pact, stitched in November, Shemaroo will have access to UTV‘s World Cinema titles for home video distribution.

    But it is not competition that is worrying Gada at this stage. “We will together have to grow the market. It is at a very nascent stage for us to fight for market share,” he says.

    Agrees Moser Baer COO G Dhananjayan, “World Cinema is a very small market at this stage. And to add salt to the injury, we have to fight against piracy. We have to expand the market.”

    Which is why Shemaroo has kick-started a four-day long Kurosawa film festival in Kolkata. The idea is to spread awareness and visibility for such genre of movies. Says Gada, “In India, the theatrical release of world cinema films is more of a promotional activity.”

    UTV, which aims to play in a bigger canvas, is also planning theatrical releases. The first to roll out on 29 July will be the Iraninan movie Waltz with Bashir. “We are getting producer Roman Paul here and the red carpet will be held at PVR. Our plan is to have one such big release every month,” says UTV Global Broadcasting executive director Shantanu Aditya.

    For UTV, the other avenue to tap audiences is through film festivals. Recently in March, UTV held a Russian Film Festival that was followed by the French Film Festival in June.

    “It is necessary to simultaneously create new audiences for world cinema, thereby increasing the overall consumption,” says Aditya.

    Keeping this in mind, UTV organises regular film shows and has its own film club that has 6.5 lakh members. “We have tie-ups with Alliance Francaise, NCPA and other attaches of different countries along with whom we hold a lot of events including film festivals. The attempt is to educate people about the quality and know the impact of World Cinema,” avers Aditya.

    For UTV, the bigger revenue pie is in broadcasting. UTV World Movies is trying to carve out a space for itself outside the two English movie channels – HBO and Star Movies. Avers Aditya, “Television is a mass medium compared to home video or theatre. We will first showcase the movie titles on our channel before we move it to the other revenue exploitation platforms like home video and theatrical release.”

    Having a similar business model is NDTV Lumiere with broadcasting as the pillar around which would revolve home video and theatrical releases. The joint venture company, with NDTV Imagine holding 51 per cent and Manmohan Shetty and Sunil Doshi having the balance 49 per cent, has already invested $10 million in the venture.

    “We plan to invest $7 million over the next 18 months for augmenting our reach and replenishing our catalogue,” says Doshi.

    NDTV Lumiere is currently available on digital cable and is in talks with DTH operators to widen the channel‘s presence. High carriage fee is not making it feasible for the channel to be on analogue cable at this stage.

    On the home video front, NDTV Lumiere has tied up with Excel Entertainment and has already released 15 DVDs.

    Sourcing content is an ardous task as the market is scattered across the world. “It needs special skills as one has to select the right content from several sources at a competitive price. Making the right buys, however, is possible if one has an expert eye,” says Doshi.

    Piling up content at low costs is what is attracting players and presenting a case for a viable business model down the road even as revenue opportunities are limited. Locking in long-term content means creating an entry barrier while building a nest for future exploitation as the market sizes up.

    NDTV Lumiere has invested around $7 million to build a library of approximately 400 titles, 75 per cent of which are contemporary-led. “We are looking at procuring 250-300 more films over the next 18 months,” says Doshi.

    UTV, which entered early in the market (except Palador), has invested close to $6 million for building a library of 700 titles.

    Piracy is hurting the home video market for World Cinema. With prices of DVDs being higher, pirates have a costing advantage. While Moser Baer has priced its content at Rs 399, Shemaroo has kept its DVD price at Rs 349.

    Says Gada, “In case of Hindi films, Moser Baer‘s mass pricing has acted as a deterrent against piracy. But that is not the case with World Cinema where the DVDs cost higher.”

    The challenge is to sell more DVDS at a brisker pace. “We have sold 5,000 copies in the last two months. We have already released 10 home video titles. The target this year is to have 50 releases and sell 60,000 units,” says Aditya.

    Agrees Doshi, “On the home video front, getting volumes is a long way off. As for the TV side of the business, the pay-TV environment needs to move towards digitalisation.”

    So what would sustain the World Cinema movement as a business proposition? “It has to have a multi-pronged revenue approach. But broadcasting has to be the main side of the business,” says Aditya.

    World Cinema players have a long road to cover before they can make their ventures profitable. But at least the script is being written now.

  • Multiplexes take Rs 450 million hit

    Multiplexes have taken a Rs 450 million knock since the producers began to stop supply of their fresh slate of movies from 4 April.

    The pinch is particularly felt hard by the top six plex operators who account for three-fourth of the 850 screens across the country, according to information gathered by Indiantelevision.com.

    In this research article, Indiantelevision.com estimates the revenue loss to climb to Rs 850-900 million if the strike continues for a month.

    Analysis

    Let us examine the impact in revenue caused due to different occupancy rates due to the movie release embargo. The big six namely Big Cinemas, PVR, Inox, Cinemax, Fame Cinemas and Fun Cinemas themselves constitute about three- fourth of the total number of screens. While there are more than 11,000 single-screen cinemas across the country, the multiplexes contribute to well over 50 per cent of the revenue generated.

    The occupancy rates are expected to be significantly different in the multiplexes with major Hindi films not being released. According to Fun Cinemas COO Vishal Kapur, screens are currently operating at around 15 per cent occupancy.

    The table below shows the number of seats, revenue per-show and revenue per-day generated by all multiplex screens in the country at the given occupancy rates. The occupancy rates have been considered between 10 and 60 per cent across all screens in the country.

    Note that in the above table, the average number of seats per screen in a multiplex is taken to be 230 and the total number of screens has been taken at 850. The average price of a movie ticket has been considered to be a conservative Rs 125. Additional losses would include loss in sales in food and beverages at the counters which is estimated to be around Rs 35 per-seat. The total loss, thus, incurred per-seat per-show would amount to Rs 160.

    A 10 per cent occupancy rate causes a difference of around Rs 15 million per day across all the 850 screens in the country. During normal times, screens may operate between 15 to 50 per cent occupancy depending on the movies showing at the time, says marketing head of Inox Harshavardhan Gangurde.

    Thus if we take a figure of 35 per cent to represent the occupancy rates of multiplex screens at any time of the year, in the current scenario there could well be a difference of 20 per cent in average occupancy rates.

    As is evident from the table, the multiplexes earn Rs 30 million less per day from ticket sales and food counters. Per week, this amounts to a loss of Rs 210 million in revenue, taking all multiplex screens into account. This figure does not include additional sources of revenue from vehicle parking and other such ancillary sources. However, the IPL may well have tempered the losses as it has the potential to lower the occupancy rates in the multiplexes.

    The big six hit the most

    The top six multiplexes took the biggest hit in revenue losses, as is evident from the table below.

    IPL impact on movies

    Many believe that the IPL is one of the main reasons for bringing a halt to the release of Hindi movies. The IPL took the country by storm in 2008 and is believed to have eaten away significantly into box-office collections. Industry observers believe that this is the right time to hold movies from releasing in multiplexes as it would in any case lead to significant losses. Movies released during the IPL in 2008 (from 18 April to 1 June) include Sirf, Tashan, Anamika, Mr. White Mr. Black, Pranali, Jimmy, Bhootnath, Jannat, Don Muthuswami, Dhoom Dhadaka and Ghatothkach. Clearly, most movies released were not big-budget movies. The only significant movies released during this time were Tashan, Jannat and Bhootnath. Jannat was the only movie which did reasonably well while the others had nothing much to write about.

    This year, during the IPL season, producers have decided not to jump into the fray at all. The IPL has provided the perfect time and opportunity to broker a deal with multiplex owners.

     

    Conclusion

    There could be a 20 per cent loss in occupancy rates if the United Producers and Distributors Forum stays put in not releasing new movies till a settlement is reached. From our calculations, this difference in occupancy rates would amount to revenue losses of Rs 850-900 million per month in multiplexes. This figure is much lesser than Rs 1-1.5 billion per month as is being claimed by some industry sources.

    The IPL has provided the perfect time for producers and distributors to settle the issue with multiplex owners. This issue had been simmering for a while ever since the release of Fanaa by Yash Raj movies way back in 2006. A sensible resolution of this issue hopefully would be reached during this time which would serve the best interests of either party for a good period of time.

  • Multiplex owners demand uniform entertainment tax

     
    Multiplex owners demand uniform entertainment tax
     

    MUMBAI: The multiplex owners in India are looking forward to uniformity of entertainment tax in the union budget 2008-09. The other things they are insisting on are decrease in service tax on lease rentals.

    “The rates of entertainment tax are amongst the highest in the world. Most states levy an entertainment tax ranging from 30 to 50 per cent of ticket sales. The average rate of entertainment tax across the world is around 10 per cent of ticket sales,” said E City Ventures (Fun Republic) MD Atul Goel.

    Multiplex owners are awaiting abatement of 67 per cent for service tax on rent so that effective tax rate reduces to 4 per cent.

    They feel as the high rate of entertainment tax still exists, the domestic cinema exhibition industry also pays sales tax on food and beverage. Multiplex owners say that they are forced to pay multiple taxes which include property tax on real estate that it occupies, service tax on advertising revenues, show tax on the number of shows held and income tax on net profits.

    Cinemax India CFO Jitendra Mehta says, “We await abatement of 67 per cent for service tax on rent so that effective tax rate reduces to 4 per cent.”

    Echoing Mehta, Goel adds that the service tax introduced on lease rentals for cinema exhibitions will virtually kill this industry, and, in turn, the entire film industry. He thinks that the entertainment tax structure needs to be re-looked to benefit the overall cinema infrastructure.

    Multiplex owners are demanding a one indirect tax regime. They insist that indirect taxation of goods and services should be integrated into the Goods and Service Tax (GST). Besides entertainment tax on cinema tickets should be integrated into GST.
  • Bond shakes up the Indian box-office with nearly Rs 150 mn take

    Bond shakes up the Indian box-office with nearly Rs 150 mn take

    MUMBAI: Shaken but not stirred! Casino Royale the new bond film made Rs. 149 million in the first three days of release.

    The film opened across 452 screens on 427 prints. Sony pictures releasing of India says that this marks the best opening weekend performance for a foreign film in India surpassing Spider-Man 2 which had made Rs. 78 million. On the first day alone Casino Royale made Rs. 47 million. It has also been the fastest foreign film to cross the Rs. 100 million mark.

    Sony Pictures Releasing India MD Uday Singh, says, “Casino Royale has exceeded our expectations at the box-office. This unprecedented opening is the largest for a foreign film in India. Backed by a 360 degree marketing campaign, synergy partnerships from the Sony Group Companies and our brand alliances, we took this franchise to a wider audience base. Critical acclaim from the media further helped in building the buzz”.

  • Spielberg, Burnett film based reality show to air on Star World, Star Movies from May

    Spielberg, Burnett film based reality show to air on Star World, Star Movies from May

    MUMBAI: Star World and Star Movies will air the upcoming film based reality show On The Lot in May 2007.

    The show is being done by reality TV guru Mark Burnett and film director Steven Spielberg.

    In the US the show kicks off on Fox from 16 May 2007. The aim of the show is to give aspiring filmmakers from around the world the chance to earn a $1-million development deal at DreamWorks.

    16 undiscovered filmmakers will compete to win the support of the show’s viewers, as their fate will be decided by a weekly audience vote.

    The show will have a one-hour Film Premiere episode, followed by a half-hour Box Office results show.
    After a global search, applicants will be winnowed to a group of 16 talented filmmakers. These finalists will be brought to Hollywood, where they will be divided into teams and begin the journey toward their ‘big break’.

    Every week, the hopeful filmmakers will produce short films from a chosen genre, running the gamut from comedies to thrillers, personal dramas to romance, sci-fi to horror. They’ll have access to the best resources the industry has to offer — professional writers, cast and crew, and maybe even Hollywood celebrities.

    After the teams have battled time frames, budgets and all the usual chaos that goes along with filmmaking, their films will debut and be critiqued in front of a live audience during the Film Premiere episode. Judges will include a high-ranking motion picture executive, a prominent film critic and a succession of well-respected guests, such as directors who are experts in the week’s featured genre. But the filmmakers ultimately will be judged by the harshest critics of all … the public.

    Fox viewers votes will determine which film should be left on the cutting-room floor. On the next night’s Box Office results show, the director whose feature garners the fewest votes will be sent home. Reports indicate that Fox will use American Idol as a vehicle to create awareness for this show.