Now showing: The maths behind screening of a movie

Considered to be the largest movie-producing nation world-over, India, in 2009, produced a total of 2961 films on celluloid, including 1288 feature films.

A booming business, it is also open to foreign direct investments, making it lucrative for the likes of Warner Bros, 20th century Fox, and the like.

A movie ticket that was priced reasonably a few years ago is not priced exorbitantly today. Ever wondered, what goes behind screening of movies at multiplexes and what are the cost factors that decide the price of a movie ticket?

Elaborating on the margin earned by multiplex owners, Dr Ronak Gandhi, co-partner in Devi and Cine Pride multiplexes, says, “While screening a movie, 20% of the net collection is paid as entertainment tax to the government. Of the remaining 80%, nearly 48-52% is paid to the distributor and the remaining 35-40% is our earning.”

But, they incur loss when forced to screen movies for merely few persons. Commenting on this trend, Dr Gandhi explains, “Sometimes, during festivals and holidays, we receive very less crowd. We try and convince people to watch a movie that is running housefull or nearly full in other screens. But, if they are hell-bent on watching a particular ‘movie’ without any audience, then we are forced to screen the movie. Herein, we have to bear expenses of air-conditioner costing around Rs300, which runs for two hours and the projector and electricity cost which comes to around Rs500, manpower cost, and other expenses. In all, Rs2000 is our cost for running a show daily, which amounts to Rs25,000 per day, whether we run shows or cancel it.”

Manu S Patel, president of Multiplex Owner's Association and owner, Wide Angle cinema, adds, “We need at least a minimum of 45% attendance in theatres to achieve a breakeven of 35-40%.

"During weekends, we earn almost double than during weekdays. More so, many multiplex owners also screen morning shows to attract the college-going crowd. This way, they are able to earn from ticket sales."

"Additional revenue can be grossed from sales of eatables and drinks nearly 10% in excess the revenue of ticket sales. But, these shows are run mainly for hit movies at the box-office or movies with big-star cast.”

Regarding cancellations of shows, Ashok Purohit, owner, City Pulse multiplex says, “Show cancellations are not dependent on movies. It is at the discretion of the multiplex owner. Reasons could be various from a no-audience show to a loss-making movie or it could even be a multiplex’s policy to not run a particular ‘movie’. Nothing is specific. Moreover, the loss incurred by a multiplex owner is less, when a show is cancelled, as the owner is able to save air-conditioning, electricity and other expenses.”

“More often than not, the timing and cost of the weekend shows are decided by multiplex owners on Thursdays itself. Generally, we get to know the worth of a movie, its story line, star cast, production house, movie's budget and other pointers on Thursday itself, which helps us, decide our plans for the weekend, starting Friday.

"During festivals like Navratri and Uttarayan, the crowd is extremely poor, a period during which we incur heavy losses. Thankfully, producers, today, time their movie release according to festivals, thereby, helping us in earning our margin,” Dr Gandhi informed.

The business of multiplexes does not end with the release of a movie. For the owners, when a movie is box-office hit, it is good business and time to earn higher revenues. While weekends are a boom for the owners, festive times are equally dull and a loss period.