Ramayana: Exhibitors warn against changing profit sharing norms

(L-R) Ranbir Kapoor and Sai Pallavi in the film. Pics/Youtube, Instagram

Around 6.30 pm on October 20, the makers of Ramayana: Rise of a Legend announced that the movie's advance bookings had opened in leading theatre chains, removing the cloud of uncertainty that loomed over the Ranbir Kapoor, Sai Pallavi, and Yash-starrer in the preceding hours. The delay in the advance booking's opening, it turns out, was due to a tussle between the exhibitors and Dharma Productions, which is the North India distributor of filmmaker Nitesh Tiwari's magnum opus. Dharma Productions reportedly demanded a 60 per cent profit share for the first week, in a departure from the usual 50-50 per cent share between distributors and exhibitors.

Yash plays Ravana in the movie

Happy that the exhibitors and the distributor found common ground, leading to bookings opening in PVR-Inox and Cinepolis, exhibitor Akshaye Rathi told mid-day, "The commercial terms that have been agreed upon are on similar lines as those in the case of event films. The negotiations with the rest of the theatre chains are underway." It's not known yet if the exhibitors agreed to Dharma's demands or the latter relented.

Karan Johar

But one thing is for certain - the demand has left the exhibitor community worried. Bihar-based exhibitor Vishek Chauhan shared, "Dharma was trying to arm-twist cinemas by saying, ‘This is a big film. We have paid a bomb [to buy it], now you pay us more in the first week.' Assume the film makes R300-400 crore in the first week, Dharma will generate anywhere between Rs 25-30 crore of extra revenue. In the second week, they are asking for 50 per cent share. My contention is that if Ramayana merits a 60 per cent profit share because it's a big movie, then how much should we pay Udta Teer, which is [a smaller film] distributed by Dharma? Then we should give a low share to them."

Chauhan further argued that such a demand may leave exhibitors open to being arm-twisted by bigger players in the future. "Avengers: Doomsday is a bigger film than Ramayana. So, should we pay the distributor 70 per cent? Should we give 65 per cent share to Shah Rukh Khan's King? One film cannot destroy a set [practice]."

[popcorn number="50-50" desc="The usual distributor-exhibitor share for a film's opening week" class="Default"]

[popcorn number="Nov 5" desc="When ‘Ramayana: Rise of a Legend' will release worldwide" class="Default"]