Box office numbers are becoming more and more important with every new release in India.
Now more than ever, people outside of filmmaking are taking a keen interest in how much a movie is making in the early days of its release. From ‘Kashmir Files’ to ‘Brahmastra’, from ‘Vikram Vedha’ to ‘Punyan Selvan’, the performance of films at the ticket counter depends as much on the news of box office numbers as on their creative value.
According to Indian Express, the media definitely influences the audience’s decision to go and watch the movie or not.
If you talk about Brahmastra, the makers last shared its box office collection on September 19 and said that the film’s worldwide gross is INR 360 crore. Statistics show that the film is a huge hit with the audience. However, there is a debate over whether or not the producers shared inflated numbers to make the film’s earnings appear higher than it actually was.
On this, film producer and film business expert Girish Johar says that box office numbers are a good marketing tool to ensure that the film continues to be talked about. However, they feel that they don’t actually increase viewership.
Before we discuss how box office numbers affect the business of movies, it is important to look at how box office numbers are calculated.
There is a big difference between net and gross or gross box office collection. Gross box office collection includes the gross ticket sales of a movie while net gross sales is the amount after deductions made by the government such as entertainment tax, service tax etc. Another thing to consider is that these taxes in India vary from state to state. Hence the net or net collection of a film may vary from one state to another for the same film. For Hindi films, the net amount is usually shown, while for South India, the combined figure is mostly the gross amount.
Johar says that the numbers being discussed for the films are huge amounts. ‘When it comes to big numbers, big money, everyone gets excited and we all know that India is crazy about cricket and movies. So whenever a big number is associated with a film, be it high box office numbers or big budget or even star face, it gets a lot of attention and the general public is drawn to it.’
However, Johar also suggests that while there is a lot of talk about box office numbers, it is only a marketing tool and does not always influence a moviegoer’s decision to watch a movie or not. ‘Producers and film marketing teams want to ensure that large audiences flock to cinemas to watch their films. And now the audience has realized that this is just an excuse to get attention.
Kangana Ranaut has continuously claimed that producer Karan Johar is exaggerating the box office numbers for Brahmastra. Is there any way to verify these numbers? Johar says, ‘Unfortunately not!’ While organizations like Rentrac internationally provide some transparency, very few organizations like Omex in India are doing this kind of work. “If you look at it from a commercial point of view, the film producer has an investment, so it’s entirely their call whether to share the number or not.”
This is the commercial side of the story, but why do producers reveal how much their film is making? Producer Sunny Khanna, who has backed films like Bheya Fry 2, Malik and Traffic Signal, says that sharing box office numbers is becoming more important today because of the negativity surrounding films, and that this is one way to let people know. Sabotage against the film should be stopped.
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He says, ‘There is no need, but films are being targeted by people who have an agenda. They try to sabotage the film by sharing false box office numbers, then the producer has no option to start telling how much their film has earned and this happens a lot.
‘The latest example of this is the Brahmastra. Everyone was dismissing the film saying that the content was not good or that the film was not earning as much as it should have (compared to the budget), but today the box office numbers proved the film’s brilliance. is
‘Then another possibility is that a smaller film, which opens with low earnings but shows progress on Saturday and Sunday, then the audience feels that the film has gained momentum so it might be worth watching. For example, when Chip was released, people didn’t expect her to do the numbers, but she’s gotten stronger with each passing day.’
The box office number is a huge buzz on social media and the media is diligently reporting it, but does it really draw the audience to the theaters to watch the film?
Manoj Desai, distributor and owner of Mumbai’s Gaiety Galaxy and the famous Maratha Mandir, points out that sharing box office numbers with the public has really helped Bollywood, especially nowadays.
He says, ‘This strategy has come in handy after some rough months for Bollywood. It also shows that people are excited to watch the movie as there is good advance booking. Box office numbers are new indicators of how a movie is doing, it’s like people used to read reviews before watching movies, now some of them check box office numbers to understand if it’s doing well. Is it not? They understand whether they should invest in it to see it or not.’
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2024-09-28 06:44:10
