Multiplex owners upbeat on new releases

According to exhibitors, the movie will hit 95 per cent occupancy over the first three days. They expect to rustle up Rs 40 crore in the opening week itself, the highest for any movie this year. The highest first week collection this year up to now was for Yash Chopra's "Race", which had a box office collection of Rs 35 crore in the first week.

On the other hand, the Harman Baweja starred Love Story 2050, which was also launched on the same day, has met with a lukewarm response with occupancy range between 45 to 65 per cent across theatre chains such as Cinemax India, PVR Cinemas, Adlabs Cinemas, Shringar Cinemas and Inox Leisure.

The film is expected to rustle up box office collections of around Rs 10-15 crore in the first week. Multiplex owners feel that the occupancies of the film will further drop starting Monday while that of Jaane Tu... will pick up. Devang Sampat, vice president-marketing&programming, Cinemax India confirmed that Jaane Tu has by far been the biggest opener for cinema halls this year.

With the first major hit of this year, theatre chains are now hoping that their cash registers will start ringing. "The first half of this year has underperformed. However, going forward the line-up in the coming weeks is encouraging," said Gautam Datta, chief marketing head, PVR Cinemas. Theatre chain owners confirmed that occupancies in the first six months of 2008 have dropped by 30 per cent compared to the corresponding period last year. With just three films, Jodhaa Akbar, Race and Janaat, earning money for multiplexes in the first half of 2008, the industry has lost out on nearly Rs 100 crore.

However, with the dismal performance of Bollywood flicks at the box-office multiplexes, owners and distributors are awaiting for the big ticket films (around 15 movies) including Gajjani, Singh is King, Yuvraaj, Drona to hit the screens. These films are believed to have around Rs 600-650 crore riding on them.

The bets are high for not only theatres but also for distribution companies who have acquired rights of the films at whopping amounts. For instance, even though Race delivered at the box-office, the film's distributors UTV Motion Pictures, did not recover their money. UTV had paid an astonishing Rs 60 crore to acquire the worldwide distribution rights of the Rs 40 crore budget film.

Likewise, Studio18 has acquired Singh is King's distribution rights for Rs 60 crore from Adlabs Films (budget is Rs 40 crore) while Eros International has bought God Tussi Great Ho for Rs 40 crore.