Ram Charan - Jr NTR - Prabhas jittery after Pushpa AP collection

 

Pushpa four day collection share for distributors in Andhra Pradesh region has shocked `Pan Indian' Telegu film producers of RRR ( Ram Charan- Jr NTR) and Prabhas ( Radhe Shyam).  Truth is that these `Pan Indian' films cannot wish away Andhra region just like Bollywood cannot win without Maharashtra ( Mumbai) box office collections. The low shares are due to Jagan ministry strictures on movie halls and dizzy prices that film was bought according to film trade. 

After the initial euphoric opening and the storm raised in box office, dust has settled on fourth day and reflects the future mood of the general public. 60 % of the film trade or collections has to come from Andhra region. The data shows that Andhra distributors have so far got a share of 40% of the amount that they bought for. The film was sold for Rs 62 crores before the Jagan ministry issued a GO reducing ticket prices. After haggling, it was reduced to Rs 51 crore. 

The trade puts the total collections in Andhra at Rs 60 crores for 4 days. This minus the GST and theater rental- publicity, share would come to nearly Rs 25 crores . Producers had agreed that they would compensate the GST paid by distributors, if the share of collections fall below the expected mark.  If this happens, the producers takeaway from Andhra would be  Rs 30- 35 crores as they would have to give  back around Rs 20 crores by way of GST compensation. Nizam that went for Rs 35 crores has done extremely well with 3 day share alone being Rs 25 crore range and showing no sign of drop. CEDED areas ( Kurnool- Kadappa- Chitoor- Antapur) sold for Rs 16 crores has in 3 days given Rs 8-9 crores share.

Much euphoria was generated about Mumbai and North India collections. Film was sold for Rs 20 crores. After 4 days, Hindi nett ( total not share) is Rs  15 crores. On 4th day Hindi belt collection was Rs 2.98 cr. In Tamil, film was sold for Rs  7 crore and four day Nett was Rs 8.81 crore and likely the distributor might lose some money.. In Kerala, E4 minus Malayalam print on Day 1 and in four days got a Nett of Rs 7 cr and they bought it for Rs 5 crore. E4 might scrape through as collections are not that bad enough on Day 4 and has no Malayalam film of any worth as opposition.

AP CM Jagan  stopped  fan shows - charity shows and unrestricted screenings on the ground that these practices were creating black money and evasion of tax to local bodies, Apart from this,  collections  were not accounted and box office figures given out were not authenticated. Next blow is that a GO says that all theaters should install a software created by AP government to sell tickets and money gained from this App will be in treasury. After service charges , the collections will be credited to movie halls. It is to bring real box office figures.

 Akhanda ( Balakrishna) was a money spinner for Andhra distributors as it was reasonably priced. The producers expected trouble from Jagan and sold it accordingly. The anti- Jagan posturing by Balayya  just before release managed to  rustle up TDP workers and anti- Jagan  viewers to turn out in large numbers . Nani's Shyama Singha Roy ( about reincarnation) is next release.

Pushpa thanked Ajay Devgn - Ritiesh Deshmukh - Reason revealed

 Pushpa 2- The Rule is the sequel to first part . Reason for Ajay Devgn and Ritiesh Deshmukh being thanked by producers of Pushpa on screen has been revealed. Pushpa's Malayalam version released  only on  Day 2  took Rs 2,15 cr   ( Tamil- Malayalam). With Tamil print alone in Kerala, Day 1 was Rs 1.75 cr. Rs 4,95 cr Net was Tamil Nadu collection. Hindi Net was Rs 6.85 cr. Telugu Net was Rs 60.95 cr. Two day Worldwide is Rs 104, 2 cr with India net being Rs 76.55 cr.

Director Sukumar  say that the second part as expected is the clash between Pushpa and Inspector Singh ( Faasil). The director ruled out any change in cast. Sources said it more deals with the exploitation by lobby of merchants who with political support in Andhra and Tamil Nadu of the laborer's to run their red sanders shipment abroad. Inspector Singh learns that he and his men are used by the lobby to keep Pushpa under  check.  Inspector Singh becomes a game changer in the red sanders smuggling biz.

The second part will have more political overtones. Sources close to the director say that the subject for Part 2 was already locked before Part 1 release. However given the harassment meted out to Pushpa distributors by AP Government in reducing ticket rates and then leaving local bodies to decide with some strict unheard of conditions, Part 2 may look like a hit back by Allu Arjun.

Bollywood sources said that Pushpa's producers  had requested Ajay Devgn to  tweet the link of the trailer of the film’s Hindi version. Ajay did so and tweeted that it was powerful and wished Allu Arjun all success.  Similarly Riteish Deshmukh hhimself tweeted about Pushpa's trailor release. Allu Arjun had wished Sooryavanshi all luck at time of release and in the Mumbai promotional event, he said that Sooryavanshi had opened the gates for Bollywood post pandemic and thanked the team.

As a token of appreciation, producers put the names of these actors in the thankyou credit list on screen.

Pushpa second highest worldwide after Rajinikanth's Annatthe

Rajinikanth's Annatthe continues to be 2021's  highest Indian film opening worldwide  with Pushpa The Rise coming second . It has beaten the record of Thalapathy Vijay's Master, Akshay Kumar's Sooryavanshi and Pawan Kalyan's Vakeel Saab for year 2021. On the opening day, Pushpa gross collection worldwide was Rs 57. 83 crores. The biggest surprise was in the Hindi market. Allu Arjun has no earlier releases and only his dubbed films on YouTube, OTT and Hindi TV channels that took him to North audience. On Day 1, morning shows were vacant as Pushpa dubbed version was playing in YT continuously, By evening and night, the shows were full. Pushpa, due to Spider Man got few screens and odd hour timings in multiplexes. The Hindi gross was Rs 4..30 crore on Day 1. Significantly, Telugu version collection was only Rs 70 lakhs. E4 distributors botched up Malayalam version release on Day 1 in Kerala. Tamil Nadu and Karnataka too recorded full houses. North Indian response is a surprise as the top collections are from sectors where single screen are in majority. It is a shot in arm for South films looking for Expanding to Hindi markets.

Despite the euphoria, trade has adopted a wait and watch attitude since the budget is Rs 250 crores and has been sold for  dizzying figures. Worldwide theatrical distribution rights has been sold for Rs 154 crore. According to BollywoodLife the following targets has to be got by buyers :

Blockbuster - Distributor share of Rs. 230 crore or more
Superhit - Distributor share of Rs. 200-229 crore
Hit - Distributor share of Rs. 170-199 crore
Above Average - Distributor share of Rs. 160-169 crore
Average - Distributor share of Rs. 150-159 crore
Flop - Distributor share of Rs. 120-149 crore
Disaster - Distributor share less than 119 crore 

Allu Arjun's Pushpa puts impressive advance booking in Andhra despite Spider Man mania

 Spider Man No way Home  has witnessed the highest advance booking of tickets for an English movie in India. Down South, Allu Arjun's Pushpa's Telugu and Tamil has managed to put a decent opening at advance counters in South. However in Hindi it has not been able to create any ripple.

 Arjun speaking in Chennai during Tamil version promotional media meet said about Fahadh Faasil-  “Fahadh Faasil is my brother from another motherland. It was a pleasure to have you play Bhanwar Singh Shekhawat in Pushpa. Looking forward to seeing you soon. I respect him a lot as an actor. I genuinely enjoyed watching him perform live. I hope you will also enjoy both our performances on screen,” 

- Pushpa's advance booking for day 1 [all languages, As of 10:35 PM]:

Telugu: 3.70 Cr gross

Hindi: 18900

Tamil: 10L

Kannada

 Spider Man as per INOX- PVR- Cinepolis has nationally sold 4.75 lakh tickets when te counters opened today. Rs 16.90 crores was collected. The film releases on December 16th. By today and  tomorrow, a total of Rs 30 crores will be collected as advance booking for weekends. If this happens , it  will be the highest for any movie in Indian box office.as seats that are sold through counters put together will take it to Rs 30 cr on opening day alone. 30% of seats in multiplexes and 60% in  single screens are sold in counters.

Bollywood Hungama reports - Of the 4.75 lakh plus tickets sold in advance, nearly 2.90 lakh tickets are for the opening day i.e. Thursday, whereas the remaining are split over the weekend. Spiderman is looking at a historic opening of Rs. 30 crore net on a working Thursday, and this is an indicator that the audience is willing to step out to watch a film on the big screen, provided that the content has something that warrants a big-screen watch.

The film has surpassed all expectations in terms of advance booking and now all eyes on the opening day as it is poised to emerge as the biggest opener of 2021 in Hindi belts by surpassing Sooryavanshi.  And interestingly, this is happening with a mere restrained release on approximately 2400 screens, which yet again gives out a message that screen count has nothing to do with box office collections. Over the last few weeks, we have given reasons for certain films suffering due to 50% occupancy cap in Maharashtra, or the Covid fear, but here comes a Hollywood film to break all myths and give out a message loud and clear - make a big film and there is enough capacity even in just 2500 screens to put up an earth-shattering opening of Rs. 30 crore plus.