My daughter was after me since last few days to see Chennai express!! As was my usual habit, I checked on the reviews of the film. Almost all the critics have panned the film with one even declaring ‘board at your own risk’. I told the same to my daughter who just wouldn’t agree with the reviews (shah rukh power i guess!!!). I reminded her of the last time we had the same conversation. The critics equally panned Ra One but my daughter forced me to go to the movie with her and the day we went there were just a little over 20 people in the theatre and too in inox!!!. And i came back with a splitting headache from the movie!!! So she grudgingly kept quiet!!!
Yesterday she told me – ‘papa chennai express is going to cross 200 crores this week’. I thought she was joking but a quick search on the net confirmed what she said!! How could a film so poorly rated by critics do so well at the box office?!!!
Are the critics dumb or the audiences? I did a bit of research and found out quite interesting points. Have a look!!
Chennai express was released in 7000+ screens across all territories. Considering the average occupancy of each screen, they may be fetching atleast 50,000 per day. Multiply that with 7000 screens result in a whopping 35 crores per day!!! So if any such film just manages to run 5 days, it is sure to earn at least 100 crores. During this period and before there are certain actions taken by the production houses:-
before release
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1. generate a lot of buzz about the movies from a few months before release
2. attend tv events, shows, inaugurations
3. incessant interviews of lead actors
4. ads on tv and internet
5. high profile release
6. enroll cyber armies. this is to counter every critic on the internet in the first few days so that a credible opinion on the movie does not come out and keeps the potential viewer confused about the movie (even if it is definitely bad)
all this will ensure a high initial turnout
after release
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1. Release high figures for first day gross
2. have all actors talk about how happy they are with the success
3. big tv and paper ads about the success and gross collections
4. have cyber armies actively praise the movie online
5. keep the buzz alive
6. keep the potential viewer interested
basically its all about the first one week. The potential viewer comes to know about the movie by a week. Thereafter if it good, he will see it and if it bad he will drop it. But, the first week is the time his opinion has to be managed by the tv, internet and print media. All the Blitz, even if it does not convince him , it will keep him confused at least. And that is the aim!!!
Also, when someone says that a movie is a 70 crore movie, we would like to know the breakdown like
hero fee-
heroine fee-
all other actors fee-
ads budget –
director fee-
all other persons fee-
fee need to be paid no doubt, but the renumeration paid to individuals does not add to the technical values of a film. So if i want to know on what a grand scale a movie is made, then i would like to know how much was spent on locations, sets, special effects, stunts, technical advancements etc!!!
Also, it brings us to an important question. Can everyone get 7000 screens for his release? Obviously not – as Ajay devgan found out some time back. Therefore if you have 3500 screens instead of 7000, then your collections are cut in half!!!. This means that collections are not a result of good cinema but a clever manipulation of screens by the production houses!! You may make a bad movie in 20 crores but if you release in 7000 screens with as much publicity, it will still return a substantial profit in the first three days itself!!
So, in the present day, the success of a film does not talk of the quality of the film!!! (this is not a comment on Chennai Express as I haven’t yet seen the film)
p.s:- Still, we are going to see Chennai Express today becoz I too am confused !!! And that sums up the story!!!
