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Saturday, August 24, 2013

Understanding the Economics of a Movie


Today, I will talk about the economics of a movie. In today's fast paced world, Media is a very big contributor in every field be it politics, movie or communications.
Since this is a post about film business, so media has a lot to play in success or failure of a movie. There was a time when media was not that active and movies used to generate 100 crore after 1 year of successful running in cinemas. But now the scenario has changed, a movie can collect 100 cr only in 3-4 days and even a film is successful, it lasts up to max 15-20 days in halls.
But one thing we need to understand is "If a film is making 100 cr...Is it actually successful or it is just a hype??"... I will try to make you understand about the calculations on the basis of which a movie can be treated successful or dud.?


A movie is not made only by spending money on actors . Its budget includes cost of everything including music director, actors, junior artists, cinematographers, choreographers, director, associate director, sound recordists, director of photography, costume designer, set designers, laborers etc. After a movie is ready , money has to be spent on publicity, merchandise, games etc. All these figures are added to form the complete budget of the movie.
So lets say a movie is made with a budget of 40 crores including everything.
Now if it makes a total collection less than 40 cr, it is a dud and the producers are at loss.
You will be surprised to know that.. even if it makes some where around 50 cr , it is still at loss. Now you will be eager to know how can it be in a loss when there is a clear profit of 10 cr rupees.
Now read this carefully-
A producer is the one who has spent his money on the movie. Ultimately it is his money which is at stake but when he earns profit, he can not keep all that profit in his pocket. He has to give the share to cinema hall owners otherwise where will he release his movie??
He has to share his profit with all theater owners, circuit owners, director, actors.
So if he is making a profit of only 10 cr on 40 cr, ultimately he will have nothing in his pocket because it is not only one man who is responsible for making a film.
If the movie is making 60-70 cr, it is average-above average.\
A movie can only be termed as successful if it makes atleast twice the money spent on it. Here in this case atleast 80 cr has to be the collection to term it as success at box office.
If the collection is 90-100 cr it is a superhit.
Now ofcos, if the movie is making 120 cr or 200 cr on 40 cr, it is a block buster.



Now , one thing has to be kept in mind after you have understood the calculations.
In this media-savvy world, we see that even if a film is low in content but if it is publicized correctly, it can garner 100 crores easily. The  idea is to sell your product no matter how?
We also get to see that a film is very high in quality content that can make your shiver from your soul but due to low publicity, it can still be a failure.



Actors like Nawazudin Siddiqui, Irrfan Khan, Vidya Balan, Amitabh Bachchan are always found in a sensible movie and their performance is so rich and outstanding that it can bring shame to the biggest actors of the industry in terms of acting. That is we call a true and magnificent cinema.For them collections are not important, the respect they earn is priceless. Industry and people should be proud  that we have actors like them here. 

It is very sad to say that today a film's success is measured only with the money it garnered at BO and somewhere media is also responsible for framing and feeding these kind of things in people's mind.
My request is- See the effort behind making a movie, see its content, see the hard work of the actors and laborers and then decide whether you have to watch or not.

So , we can not treat a film successful only on the basis of total collections. The calculations part was only to make you understand the confusion which generally media creates. If a movie wins your heart, if it make you think, if it hits you right in your heart, it is no doubt successful , no matter what the collections are.
Ultimately it is audience who is better to decide which is better which is bad.

I leave you with one question
If a film is very rich in content, the performance of the actors are over the top-no matter the star cast is big or small.. and it continue to run for 2 months in halls winning the hearts of people
OR
If a film is very very low in content, performance of the actors are OK. OK..strarcast is very big..it makes 100 crores in 3 days and next friday when you go to cinema, you can not find it there.
Which is successful?????

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