Most important criteria is expensive marketing and creating illusion that can engage audience psychology, Indian audience like fantacies,homely domestic drama type of films with added love ,and violence and magicfiction. People spend money only on old known actors.So if the movie maker wants to earn millions he must sense the pulse of his audience i.e what they like the most at the end of their hard day. Always remember middle and lower middle class people will decide the verdict of the movies.

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What recipe makes our movies super hit and flop?
By.Dr.Mahboob ali khan Phd
Most important criteria is expensive marketing and creating illusion
that can engage audience psychology, Indian audience like
fantacies,homely domestic drama type of films with added love ,and
violence and magicfiction. People spend money only on old known
actors.So if the movie maker wants to earn millions he must sense the
pulse of his audience i.e what they like the most at the end of their hard
day. Always remember middle and lower middle class people will
decide the verdict of the movies.
The theatrical verdict has lot of criteria
1. The person who creates / packages the film is the called the
‘PRODUCER’. He / she may create the entire project like hiring the
director, actors, script-writers, technicians etc.
Examples of leading producers: Rakesh Roshan (FilmKraft
Productions), Karan Johar (Dharma Productions), Farhan Akhtar and
Ritesh Sidhwani (Excel Entertainment), Sajid Nadiadwala
(Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment), Bhushan Kumar (T-Series) etc.
2. Once a film is ready for release, the producer may decide to sell the
film to a ‘Corporate house’ or a ‘Individual distributor’. For example,
Sajid Nadiadwala sold Salman Khan’s ‘Kick’ to UTV Motion Pictures;
Excel Entertainment sold ‘Don 2’ to ‘Reliance Entertainment’.
Producers always sell it at a price higher than the ‘Cost of Production’
(which is known in the trade as COP). This ensures that the creative
producers are safe in terms of the business of the project. To give our
readers another example, the COP of Jai Ho was very less, but the film
was sold for a much higher price to ‘Eros International’, which was the
reason why the film was a failure at the box office. That’s the reason
why we hear that the producers (in this case Sohail Khan) made his
money, but the distributors (Eros) lost.

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Examples of leading distributors
 Yash Raj Films (Producers + Distributors)
 Anil Thadani (AA films worldwide) – Movies distributed
include Hate Story 2, Yaariyaan, Humpty Sharma ki Dulhania,
Hasee toh Phasee, Dirty Picture, Ek Villain.
 Eros Entertainment(Producers + Distributors) – Distributed
films like Happy Ending, Jai Ho, Linga, Ram Leela, Tevar etc.
 Reliance Entertainment (Producers + Distributors) –
Distributed Don2, Holiday, Singham, Bodyguard
 Viacom18 (Producers + Distributors) – Distributed Mary Kom
 Fox Star Studios (Producers + Distributors) – Distributed Bang
Bang, My Name is Khan, Jolly LLB, City Lights
3. Once the distributor acquires the project at a premium, they might
decide to sell different territories to sub-distributors. These sub-
distributors then sell the film to theatre owners (exhibitors).
To understand the business of a film, we have to understand the cost
involved at each step. Thus when we claim that a Tevar or Action
Jackson have failed, even with reasonably good collections, the costs
incurred at each step maybe higher.
Case Study of Arjun Kapoor’s Tevar
 Boney Kapoor (Producer) invests about Rs 30-35 crore into the
film
 He then finds a buyer (Eros International) who buys the
theatrical distribution rights for Rs 48 Crore.
 Eros International (Distributor) then invests around Rs 12 crore
to market (promote) the film.
 Total costs of Tevar = Rs 60 crore
 Estimated total revenue from other sources like Music, Satellite
rights and Overseas is Rs 18 crore approx.
 Total cost to recover from theatrical business is Rs 42 crore
(Revenue from other sources i.e Rs 18 cr deducted from total
costs of Rs 60 cr)
Now, the most important point. If a Distributor has to recover Rs 42
crore from theatrical business, then the film has to collect atleast around
Rs 80-85 crore. The reason is, a share from the total collections also

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goes to the exhibitor (theatre owner). If Tevar collects around 50 crore
at the box office, Eros International would only get around 25 crore.
Breakdown of Tevar (all figures are approximates to make it simple for
our readers to understand)
 Money to recover = Rs 42 crore.
 Expected total collections from theatrical business = Rs 50
crore
 Distributors Share that Eros International would get (Total
recovery) = Rs 25 crore
 Total Loss = Rs 17 crore
Reason for failure is the high price paid for Tevar by Eros International.
If Boney Kapoor had sold the film for a lower price or released the film
himself, Tevar would have been a success at the box office even if it
collected around Rs 50 – 55 crore.
Finally, based on the costs and various other factors, we then give our
box office verdicts to films. Taking the case study of Tevar, here is how
much it had to collect to get different verdicts.
 For Tevar to be a All Time Blockbuster – Rs 175 crore or more.
 Blockbuster – Rs 140 crore or more
 Super Hit – Rs 110 crore or higher
 Hit – Rs 90 crore or higher
 Average – Rs 70 crore
 Flop – Anything less than Rs 60 crore

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Note: There is no fixed formula for verdicts. In today’s times, trade
analysts are a little more lenient when it comes to verdicts. With strict
verdicts, Kick wouldn’t be a ‘Blockbuster’ as some distributors lost
money (due to high costs). Bang Bang wouldn’t be a HIT and Happy
New Year wouldn’t be a ‘Super Hit’.
Also, if a film does well in theatres, the distributor or producer may get
a higher price through Satellite Rights, thus additional revenue is
generated from other sources if it does well in theatres.
Every film that is released in theatres must be assessed this way to
understand its business and final verdicts