Komal Nahta · @KomalNahta
17th Aug 2012 from Twitlonger
EK THA TIGER: FACTS & FIGURES
Stop the speculation… here’s the economics of ETT
Salman Khan’s Ek Tha Tiger was expected to break all records on the opening day. And it did exactly that on 15th August, making the historic day prove to be even more historic for Bollywood. For, the spy thriller love story indeed wrote box-office history that day.
The Aditya Chopra film, directed by Kabir Khan, netted Rs. 32.93 crore on the first day, surpassing the previous first-day record holder, Agneepath, by an astounding margin of Rs. 10 crore. The Hrithik Roshan-Sanjay Dutt starrer had collected a net of Rs. 23 crore on the opening day, which, incidentally, was another national holiday, Republic Day (Thursday, 26th January 2012). Whether it was in the multiplexes or the single-screen cinemas, ‘A’ class centres or ‘B’ and ‘C’ class centres, the euphoria for the film was unprecedented. The best way to describe the madness for the Salman starrer was ‘Salmania’. The craze surpassed that seen during the previous Salman releases like Dabangg and Bodyguard.
There was a drop in collections on the second day, which was usual and as expected as the opening day madness. Box-office collections of all films take a beating on the day following a national or festive holiday if the next day is a working day, which 16th August was. The second day all-India net collection was Rs. 14.5 crore. A drop of 50-55%, even 60%, is quite acceptable for the reason mentioned above.
Moreover, in the case of ETT, the drop had to be huge because the first-day collections were humongous. Just for the sake of a comparison, let us take the example of Agneepath, which had collected Rs. 23 crore on the opening day (national holiday for Republic Day). Collections dropped to Rs. 12.5 crore on the second day which was a working Friday.
Actually, this is the first film to have three weekends in the first nine-day week. The opening day was like its first weekend because of the Independence Day holiday. The Friday-Saturday-Sunday is its second weekend, which is the usual weekend for all films. If Eid falls on Monday (20th August), the two-day period of 20th and 21st will prove to be the third weekend for the film. And the third weekend may turn out to be bigger at the box-office than the second weekend, looking to Salman’s popularity among the Muslim population. Point to note here is that the first- and second-day collections are despite the ongoing Ramzan month which is traditionally known to be bad for the box-office because a lot of devout Muslims abstain from entertainment activities, including frequenting cinemas to watch films.
Another notable point in the case of the Salman-Katrina starrer is that the distributors of the film have entered into contracts with single-screen cinemas under which the shares accruing to them would be far more than in the case of normal films. Many single-screen cinemas will end up giving upto 75% of the net collections to the distributors of ETT as their shares. This will, obviously, increase the earnings of the film. Even the sharing ratio of multiplexes of 52.5% in first week and 45% in 2nd week will work to the advantage of the film because of the nine-day first week.
Looking to the trend of the collections and the public reports of the film, it is very clear that the Rs. 100-crore mark will be reached on Sunday/Monday. If there is a huge jump in collections on Eid and on the following day, as is expected, it should not be surprising if the film touches the Rs. 150-crore mark by the end of the first week (of nine days). If this happens, it would mean that ETT will have exceeded the lifetime collections of Dabangg (Rs. 142 crore) and Bodyguard (Rs. 146 crore), in its first week itself.
The question being asked in trade circles and in the public now is whether Tiger will touch the Rs. 200-crore mark. It is too premature to predict that but whether it does or not, one thing is crystal clear – and that is, Ek Tha Tiger is the biggest grosser of Salman Khan’s career to-date.
Coming to the economics of the film, it has cost Yash Raj Films Rs. 90 crore to make, promote and release. Assuming that the deal for satellite rights would be closed for at least Rs. 45 crore, and the share from the Overseas circuit (where also the film is doing well) would be around Rs. 20 crore, and the revenues from music and home video would be Rs. 5 crore, the recoveries from these sources would add up to Rs. 70 crore. The share from India theatrical business would be around Rs. 105-110 crore. This would mean total returns of Rs. 175-180 crore, at least. Since the investment is Rs. 90 crore, it means that the return is Rs. 85-90 crore, at least!! A blockbuster, this!
Given below are the net collections of the film circuit-wise.
All India Territory-wise Net Collections Day One:
BOMBAY 11.96
DELHI - U.P 6.21
PUNJAB 3.00
RAJASTHAN 1.90
NIZAM-ANDHRA 1.50
BENGAL 1.70
BIHAR 0.72
ASSAM 0.16
ORISSA 0.38
C.P 1.75
C.I 1.40
MYSORE 1.70
TAMIL NADU- KERALA 0.55
TOTAL 32.93 Cr