Aamir Khan-starrer PK's producers set to make profits within a week

Rajkumar Hirani's PK has not only set the social media afire with its content. It has also set the cash registers ringing at the box office, collecting Rs 135 crore within the first five days of release. While the film did not break any records, its producers are poised to recover their money faster than any other big-ticket film this year.

Abroad, the film has raked in an impressive $10.5 million, or Rs 66.7 crore, with North America contributing $4.41 million (Rs 28 crore), followed by West Asia at $2 million (Rs 12.8 crore). As such, the film's global tally stands at Rs 202 crore.

Analysts and exhibitors say for PK, the best might be yet to come, as it is expected the film's collection on Christmas day will exceed Rs 38.4 crore, its collection on Sunday and its highest single-day collection so far.

The film, which stars Aamir Khan, Anushka Sharma, Sanjay Dutt, Boman Irani and Sushant Singh Rajput, has been co-produced by Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra, in association with UTV Motion Pictures. According to sector estimates, the total cost of the film stands at Rs 90-100 crore, including expenses towards production, prints and promotions.

Typically, the producer(s) gets a little less than half the net box-office earnings. Currently, the producers' share for PK stands at Rs 62.3 crore in the domestic market and about Rs 30 crore in the foreign market. As such, the makers of the film are set to book profits purely through box-office collections. If one takes into account the Rs 10 crore worth of music and other ancillary rights, the film has already made record profits.

As of now, the film's satellite rights haven't been sold.

Viacom18 Motion Pictures' Mary Kom, which starred Priyanka Chopra, recorded profits in the first week, too, but it was made at a much lower budget (Rs 18 crore). Hrithik Roshan and Katrina Kaif-starrer Bang Bang also made profits in the first week, but that was after factoring in the revenue from satellite rights and home video rights (about Rs 45 crore).

Analysts say the fact that the cost of production has been rationalised has helped PK recover the money faster. While ticket rates had been increased for the opening weekend, footfalls had also been encouraging. Through the past weekend, average occupancy stood at about 80 per cent. Considering the film is shorter than others such as Happy New Year and Kick, PK has more shows a day, too.

Suniel Wadhwa, independent distributor and box-office analyst, says, "Moviegoers stormed theatres this weekend to see the Aamir Khan-Raju Hirani combination in PK. The film seems to be on track to ultimately surpassing their previous venture, 3 Idiots, and might also become one of the biggest grossers of all time. Aamir Khan's films have a very large dedicated fan base, which means PK is set for a long and impressive run, as Christmas festivities go into the coming weekend."

The film has also raked controversy, with some quarters terming it anti-Hindu. As a result, social media has been filled with comments and opinions sporting #BoycottPK or #SupportPK. The controversy, however, doesn't seem to have affected PK's collections, considering the drop in collection from Sunday to Monday was about 40 per cent, against at least 60 per cent for other major films.