BOI: Record Start In 2017 But Is It Good

The first two months of the year have gone by and business is at record levels with the cumulative business of January and February set to hit 450 crore nett which has never happened before so in terms of numbers its a flying start to 2107 but is it really good?

The first two months have seen a Shahrukh Khan starrer, an Akshay Kumar starrer and a Hrithik Roshan starrer and this has probably never happened in the recent past that three big stars like these have had releases in January and February. Raees is the biggest grosser ever in January and Jolly LLB 2 is the biggest grosser ever in February. The better way to look at it is 129 crore nett good for a Shahrukh Khan starrer, is 87 crore nett good for a Hrithik Roshan starrer and is 107 crore nett (expected) good for an Akshay Kumar starrer.

The answer is probably not as if these stars are getting these sort of numbers what can be expected from the actors outside the top five. The combined total of these three films is below Dangal which means that despite the record cumulative numbers for the first two months the content has gone wrong and the numbers have mainly come due to the presence of these big stars and the films themselves have not really contributed much.

The year gone by saw a little increase in business especially in GROSS terms as there was a difference in entertainment tax rates between last year and the first half of 2015. In terms of nett business it was up 3.9% apprx but GROSS (which is actually what is collected at the ticket windows) was up 6%.

The numbers have come in the first two months compared to past years so can't be called poor but considering the releases that have come so far it can't be called good. The best way to put it is under performance as films featuring these big stars are lower than they should be.