Dhurandhar: The Revenge had another day of previews being exclusively on sale in India, and it maintained a steady pace, adding another Rs. 1.75 crore nett approx to its tally. The advances for paid previews now stand at Rs. 14.75 crore nett approx, including the dubbed versions, it is over Rs. 15 crore nett. Breaking down this number, the two national chains (PVRINOX and Cinepolis) make up for Rs. 10.50 crore nett, selling 222,000 tickets.
The sales for the rest of the opening weekend were expected to open yesterday, but they did not. The delay is due to contention between the distributor and exhibitors over the revenue sharing of the original Dhurandhar and the showcasing exclusivity for this film. The show exclusivity matter is easier to settle, with the ask being for four weeks, three of which are anyway open. There will be competition in the fourth week from Bhoot Bangla, and the discussion is about settling that. These kinds of tug-of-war situations are fairly normal. The former matter, however, is something new.
The first film was a late bloomer, which really got going in the second week. Looking at NETT numbers, it doesn’t feel like an issue, but the actual money which distributor/producers get is SHARE, and SHARE terms are considerably lower from the third week onwards, which meant the distributors weren’t getting the money to the level of humongous business the film was doing. As noted earlier in the economics of Dhurandhar, the film probably lost Rs. 50 crore of SHARE due to this. It is now learnt that the distributor is asking for 5 per cent higher SHARE, which, if accepted, would be quite unprecedented. The SHARE terms in Indian cinema are frankly quite harsh on films, especially for the regional film industries. Reform on this front is long overdue, and the industry probably could have addressed it during the COVID downtime, but that is a different matter.
Coming back to the pre-sales, it is not clear when the issue will be resolved, though it obviously will be. Until then, the previews will continue to enjoy pre-sales exclusivity. At the current pace, the film will probably be nearing Rs. 20 crore nett by Monday. There will be a drop in pace once the sales for the rest of the weekend open, and that could delay Rs. 20 crore nett, but it will certainly be done before release. In fact, Rs. 25 crore nett is a very good possibility.
This is a great number, but the real fireworks will begin once the advances for the opening day and the rest of the weekend open up. The manner in which the film is selling overseas is simply absurd; the kind of absurdity has not yet been seen in India. There are a couple of reasons for that, A) Hindi films are not usually put on sale this early, B) the shows currently up for sale are evening and late night ones, at highly premium prices. These work for the metros and bigger A centres, but further down the line, they won’t sell as strongly, at least in pre-sales this far out. Once the opening day and weekend shows go on sale at closer-to-normal prices, the smaller A and B centres in the Hindi belt will also come on board, and the advances will explode. Until then, NAZAR and SABAR.
