Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Enthiran is NOT the Biggest Hit!

By Anant Mathur (October 13, 2010)

Over the last week, I have heard many people suggesting that Enthiran - The Robot is breaking box office records all over India.

It may be true that the collections of the movie have reached close to 117 crores in the first week, but let’s make it clear that it is not the biggest hit.

During the first week, average ticket prices for Enthiran - The Robot were Rs. 500 and tickets sold for as high as Rs. 1500 in certain regions. The average ticket prices of 3 Idiots and Dabangg (which currently occupy the top two spots of highest grossing Indian films) were Rs. 100. In the Hindi circuit, Robot (dubbed in Hindi) has managed to collect only 7.59 crores in the first week. If the ticket prices of Enthiran - The Robot are five time greater than Dabangg and 3 Idiots we must divide 117 crores by 5 to get the actual figure - which comes out to approximately 23.5 crores. So going by the number of tickets sold - Enthiran - The Robot has collected less than 30% of what 3 Idiots and Dabanng collected in the first week.

Another thing to remember is that Enthiran - The Robot opened on 2200 screens. A big film is usually released on approximately 1200 screens in India. Dabangg was released on 1400 screens in India and 3 Idiots on approximately 1200 (almost half of Enthiran - The Robot).
 

Knowing full well that the first weeks collections are crucial for any film; the makers decided to charge a higher price for the tickets of Enthiran - The Robot. Citing high cost of production (state-of-the-art special effects) they were able to get away with the higher ticket prices. But when we take into account that the film has only managed 20 percent of the tickets sales of Dabangg and 3 Idiots, it's easy to see why Enthiran - The Robot can not be given the title of the Biggest Hit of Indian Cinema.

© Anant Mathur. All Rights Reserved.

13 comments:

ganesh said...

ok if that itself the truth than can you think and imagine if any other movie-actors ticket rate highs - do you think the hype,interest in people will be in such, what Rajini getting? so let we wait for some other movie to beat the production cost and revenue of Enthiran the robot. till than its only "Enthiran is the Biggest Hit".

Anant Mathur said...

Enthiran is a fantastic film and Rajini is probably one of the best actors in the country. I'm just pointing out that the success of a film should be measured by how many people see a film not by how much money it has collected. Even in Hollywood, Avatar is not the biggest hit of all time, according to ticket sales, it's Gone With The Wind. Gone With The Wind has sold twice as many tickets as Avatar.

You have to remember that entertainment has changed since the time of Gone With The Wind, at that time there was no television, internet, DVDs or video on demand services. The only source of filmed entertainment was the cinema. I understand that filmmakers today want to make their money back in the first week of release, due to piracy and other issues. But it's wrong for them to say that a film is the biggest hit when it's not. Enthiran is the highest grossing yes, but not the biggest hit.

Ravi said...

Enthiran is the biggest hit in the history of Indian cinema indeed! Going by your logic: Tamil movies have 1/5 of Bollywood audience(considering the size of Tamil Nadu and the whole India!)So 23.5*5= 117.5 crores (it s more actually:P ).. It beats Dabangg and 3 idiots by a HUUUUUGGGGGEEEE margin :P :P Besides, the movie was released only in Tamil in majority of the theatres all over India in the first week, so less audience again. This cancels the effect of more prints.. :D

Anant Mathur said...

In Reply to Ravi:

Firstly, you need to look up the word Logic. It doesn't mean what you think it means.

Secondly, I'm talking of ticket prices and admissions. Enthiran was released in more theaters than Dabangg or 3 Idiots. Unless the producers and distributors of Enthiran are morons they probably expected more people to see this film than Dabangg or 3 Idiots. If they expected 5 times less audience they wouldn't have released it in more theaters than Dabangg or 3 Idiots. Obviously they were expecting the film to do great business, sadly it didn't work out that way. Before Dabangg and Enthiran only two films (Ghajini and 3 Idiots) ever collected more than 100 crores Nett. Rarely do Indian films ever cross 70-80 crores in Nett collection. It is foolish for Indian producers to have budgets of 160 crores when the recovery isn't there. I have nothing against Enthiran as a film, but a film's success should be measured on a level field. If they're going to increase ticket prices 5 times than obviously Enthiran will come out ahead by collecting more money. Also in the south the entertainment tax is a lot less. So the Nett collection is higher. On average, the entertainment tax in the southern states is 25 percent. Where as, in the northern states it's close to 60 percent. So if a film collects 100 crores gross in the north it's Nett collections are 40 crores and if a film collects 100 crores gross in the south it's nett collections are 75 crores. If we go by the entertainment tax of south and apply it to Dabangg and 3 Idiots, it would increase their Nett collections substantially because most of their business was in the North.

Anonymous said...

So will not go.

Anonymous said...

The author is really cool. But some of the commentators are just posting stupid words.

Anonymous said...

спасибо большое было интересно прочитать

Anant Mathur said...

Вы только приветствовать

Anonymous said...

It was interesting to read. Thank you.

prongy said...

Right You Are!!!

Anant Mathur said...

Thanks prongy!!!

Anonymous said...

Автор продолжай в том же духе

Anant Mathur said...

In reply to Anonymous (July 29, 2012 12:25 AM)

спасибо!