Gone are the days when a movie relied only on its trailer and songs to lure audiences to the theaters. Today, it's the era of promotion...aggressive promotion. If the filmmaker doesn't invest money in aggressive promotion, there are high chances that the movie will be doomed. Similarly, if the movie promotion is treading the wrong path, then again the movie can open to disheartening collection. Well, this is exactly what went wrong with recent releases like Tevar', Kill Dil', Happy Ending', Action Jackson' and Ungli'.
Be it online marketing or offline, the movies need to be promoted aggressively and smartly. For example: Saif Ali Khan starrer Happy Ending' spent a whopping 13 crore on P&A, besides the production cost of course. However, the movie couldn't rake in what it spent, and had a lifetime domestic earning of a dismal 21.5 crore! Out of this, the distributors' share was around 9 crore. So, what did the producers earn? Well, literally nothing!
Similarly, the movie Ungli' had a very nice concept, crisp writing and the hit jodi of Emraan Hashmi and Kangana Ranaut too. What's more, it came from a reputed production house like Dharma. However, since the movie was in the offing for too long, the makers were skeptical if they should invest too much money on its P&A. Plus, the offline promotion that was generated by the movie's marketing agency did not help create excitement for this film. This is exactly what prevented Ungli' from recovering its cost at the ticketcounters. There wasn't much buzz about the movie, and it crashed at the boxoffice, despite some good songs and a good concept.
95% of films today do not recover the money they invested in P&A. And sadly, there's no accountability of marketing. Then what's the responsibility of PR agencies, and marketing agencies? How come the production houses invest a huge amount of money without being confident that the outcome or the result will aid their film's opening at the box office?
On the other hand, if a movie is marketed well, and the right amount of curiosity or excitement is built around it, the audiences wouldn't mind thronging to the theaters and shelling out money to buy tickets.
Take a look at how much money last year's biggest flops spent on P&A!
Rank | Film | Cost (in crore) | P&A (in crore) | Collection (in crore) | Distributors' Share (in crore) |
1 | Kill Dil | 35 | 12 | 36 | 18 |
2 | Ungli | 15 | 7 | 19.47 | 9.75 |
3 | Action Jackson | 75 | 15 | 60 | 30 |
4 | Happy Ending | 55 | 13 | 21.50 | 10.75 |
5 | Tevar | 45 | 14 | 43 | 21.5 |
6 | Daawat-e-Ishq | 30 | 9 | 22.75 | 11 |
7 | The Shaukeens | 42 | 10 | 32 | 16 |
8 | Creature 3D | 27 | 8.50 | 16.52 | 8.25 |
9 | Shaadi Ke Side Effects | 43 | 6 | 38 | 19 |
10 | Bobby Jasoos | 28 | 8 | 10.87 | 5 |
| | | | | |
11 | Entertainment | 85 | 11 | 63.18 | 31.5 |
Marketing is an essential tool to lure the audiences to the theaters. But, if it is not used efficiently, no matter how many crores are invested in it, the audience won't be interested in the product, and in Bollywood's case, the movie!
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