Indian Box Office Verdicts

Note: This article was first published way back in 2007.

Indian Box office verdicts are usually confusing. A few movies are called Blockbusters by the media even though they are just Semi-hit to Hit. A few movies which go into overflow are termed Flops.

Also many of you might have wondered on what basis a verdict is given out on a movie. How does the trade define a movie as a Hit, Flop, Superhit, Blockbuster. Hopefully this article will clear all your doubts.

Gross collections – Total collections at the box office.

Nett Gross (Raw collections) – Is the total gross minus entertainment tax which is usually around 30%. When the government decides to waive off the taxes of a certain film, it goes tax-free. In which case, no entertainment taxes will be paid by the producers / distributors.

Circuit: The area for which a distributor buys the distribution rights for a film for a period of (generally) 5 or 7 or 10 years.

Ratio: The price for which a film is sold for Bombay circuit. Prices for all other circuits are determined as a fixed percentage of the ratio. For example, Delhi-U.P. is usually 80 to 85% of the ratio. But in the case of action films, which have a bigger market in North India, Delhi-U.P. may be sold for 100% of the ratio.

Flop: If a film cant even cover its investment by the distributor, it is termed a flop.

Average: If a film manages to simply recover its cost, it is an average fare.

Commission Earner: When a film recovers the investment and, over and above that, gets in revenues of 25% more, it is termed a commission earner. Thus, if the distributor?s total investment in a film is Rs. 2 crore, and it does a business of Rs. 2.50 crore, it is termed a commission earner. 25% of Rs. 2 crore is Rs. 50 lakh which is the amount of commission which belongs to the distributor to cover his expenses of releasing the film.

Overflow: When a film crosses the commission mark, the revenues thereafter are to be shared between the producer and distributor. The producer gets a share in the overflow business, generally fifty-fifty. Such sharing makes the film an overflow film. Overflow films can be further categorised as under, depending on the quantum of overflow.

Semi-Hit: A film which does a business that is double the distributor’s investment in it, is termed a semi-hit. In such a case, the producer gets handsome overflow from the distributor.

Hit: If a film more than doubles its investment in the distributor’s hands, it is deemed to be a hit.

Super-Hit: If the returns on a film are much more than double the investment, it is termed a super-hit.

Blockbuster: Returns are almost triple the investment.

ALL TIME BLOCKBUSTER: When returns are more than triple the investment i.e more than 300%.