Sun Pictures Annaathe starring Rajinikanth- Nayanthara has adopted the Kerala model of film distribution in Tamil Nadu. Ironically, Antony Perumbavoor is asking Kerala theaters to adopt the MG system of Tamil Nadu for Marakkar. Similarly, Sun Pictures has directly entered overseas market and entrusted Real Image the company that operates Qube digital transmission in India to distribute worldwide. Instead of selling it outright and not knowing collection figures and countries it was screened, Real Image would provide a full details and take a service charge on it. In fact this would be an eyeopener to the real business of Tamil cinema abroad.
Usually, a star film is sold to a single distributor and he in turn re-sells it to various distributors in districts. These distributors in turn take a MG ( minimum guarantee) from theaters and passed on to main distributor. If the film collections fall short of MG, the distributor has to pay back to theaters and if it exceeds, the outflow is shared as per mutual agreements.
Sun Pictures entrusted Udhayanidhi Stalin's Red Giant to call all theater owners to Chennai and ask them to deposit an advance amount as per their calculation. After a price was agreed among theater owners in districts and profit sharing percentage, the agreements were drawn up between them and Sun Pictures. Red Giant was only a facilitator and got a fee for it. This way theaters had no compulsion to pay as per distributor demand and amount was safe with a brand like Sun Pictures. Profit sharing rates were uniform for all single screens and usually here it varied according to locations but it was not so this time. Multiplexes who are united and governed by corporates always had a unified sharing percentage.
Theaters did not have to cough up heavy amounts to get the film and take it to a blind game of gambling. This way, Sun Pictures got the real picture of collections through Red Giant that monitored it. In Kerala, Sun distributes the film through PVR theater chain on just advance amount. Usually a non Malayalam film is bought outright and no body knows what it collected. Same applies to Karnataka. Only in Andhra, it has been sold outright.
This system does away with district wise distributors and giving them commission. Distributors are not overtly worried as only big banners with Superstars can do business this way . Others would be cash starved and want to make a fast buck at the earliest. In USA alone, Annaathe has got 550 screens and for first time the names have been listed.
