I Hate Luv Storys made a profit of Rs 9 crores even before its release last Friday — through various promotions and selling music rights, overseas rights, all-India theatrical rights etc. The film was made within a budget of Rs 15 crores.
When a film does even average business, with satellite rights, home video rights etc., it might be able to not just recover all the production costs, but also make a decent profit. Moreover, while the industry might believe that an expensive budget can get them a good product, the figures suggest otherwise as many films within the Rs 25 crore budget have been able to do even better business. We try to analyse what determines the fate of a film’s success. In addition, with massive failures like Veer, Raavan, Kites, Blue in the recent past, we try to analyse if films like I Hate Luv Storys, which is being considered an average film, will make the cut as far as profits are concerned.
Promos
Rajneeti recovered when it got a great opening and consistent wheels at the box office. The budget was just Rs 35 crores. Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif have been on a run, hosting debates christened Aaj ki Rajneeti in several colleges all over the country. The rallies discuss political and social topics concerning youth. The film was the highest grosser after Ghajini and 3 Idiots.
Bollywood producers have now started the trend of increasing the pre-release marketing budgets of movies as well as devising multiple promotional strategies, as the life span of their movies at multiplexes is shorter. Likewise, 3 Idiots, which spent around Rs 15 crore on promotions, and ended up grossing over Rs 300 crore at the box office — had Aamir Khan on a promotion-spree. 3 Idiots exploited every possible marketing option, from online release of the film, association with insurance products to Sachin Tendulkar endorsing the film, which put the movie among the most successfully marketed and promoted films of recent times. Stickers reading “Capacity: 3 Idiots” were pasted behind 10,000 autorickshaws as it is the most popular mode for commuting in the country and works wonderfully with great recall value.
Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani, which allotted Rs 10 crores on promotions alone, was hyped as the first movie to use the Ranbir Kapoor-Katrina Kaif on-screen chemistry. Unfortunately that money didn’t work too well in helping the film garner box office success.
Satellite rights
Yash Raj Films Badmaash Company, which was made at the production cost of Rs 27 crores was inclusive of print and promotion, but its total revenue so far is Rs 30 crores.
Reliance sold Kites and Raavan combined together for satellite rights worth Rs 36 crores.
Says Anurag Kashyap, whose Udaan is all set for a July 9 release, “We made a film with a budget of Rs 4.5 crores. We had no stars to promote our film. We had to devise new methods to promote it, but we are happy we recovered our costs completely even before the release.”
“The success of a film’s promotional campaign is reflected in the first three days at the box office collection. Earlier when movies were made, we would wait for the golden and silver jubilee runs. We could revive the movie if it did well. Movies these days make money mostly in the first week of its release. So pre-marketing has become more important to ensure at least a good opening week. A small budget film spends around 10 per cent on pre-release promotions and marketing. While big budget movies spend around 20-30 per cent. There is no guarantee that the film will recover after release,” says producer Subhash Ghai.
Failures
“Sometimes these tactics can boomerang,” Ghai adds. Despite having great artistes, Mani Ratnam’s Raavan spent a lot on the premarketing strategies. It was made at a budget of Rs 35 crore but then the budget went up to Rs 100 crores. Mani Ratnam fell ill. The film was made in two languages and lastly it was premiered in London. Kites was made at a budget of Rs 60 crores but then was sold to Reliance Big Entertainment for a whopping Rs 150 crores. At the end of the day the producer had already made his profit, but it was the corporate house that suffered the losses. “There are two causes for the failure of big films. The bigger the price, the bigger are the budgets. Secondly, for films like Kites and Raavan the budget was too high. Producers recover their cost by selling the film to corporate houses. But what about the corporates? They are unable to recover their money. They will have to concentrate on right prices and right content. If you don’t sell your film correctly, how will you recover it? No amount of promotion is going to help the film,” says Taran Adarsh, a trade analyst.