Posted:
Why isn't RENTRAK ( what we have everywhere in UK , Europe, US) used to track Indian movie earnings?
It would be pretty simple then. Because they would ask distributors/producers to show the 'receipts'... so no 'fudging' can be done. And they are very professional. Everyone else uses them -or some other tracking sites similar to them.
RENTRAK collects the data then reports it to specialised sites, which in turn pay Rentrak for the service.
This way, if one site or other (those reporting BOI) tries to INFLATE or deflate some movies' earnings or distrib share - there would be other sites with data from RENTRAK to negate the wrong /manufactured data.
So you'd know pretty much what the Actual Budget, Distribution, Satellite rights (et al) are, how much a mmovie REALLY earned in National and International markets.Right now any rich star/producer can buy a site and promote it as the 'true' BOI collection site... and use it to pass on their own 'fudged' numbers as the 'correct' ones. I mean the industry is bringing huge revenue I am sure they can afford RENTRAK - so as to not have biased ..'bought' sites that favor a star's movies over the other.
Also, with BW movies being shown more and more in the West ...and Western movies being shown more in India.. shouldn't a generally accepted body be allowed to asses results from everywhere?
It would also give a much fairer image of what works in regions, what works at National Level.
Comparisons betweeen BOI and Overseas takings could be done, trends and problems analyzed ...and then results given to producers - it would make predictives and trends easier to udnerstand/track.
****In US/UK we use Box Office Mojo that can be accessed by all to check movies' technical data and other stuff.. IMDB Pro has data too.. (thery also have contract with Rentrak) and that site has literally a HUGE database on most Western movies- but then, most Western PH have contracts with Rentrak or similar so there's no issues with the openness ( some still don't report true budget...but that can be easily deducted from articles also published throughout the production process and other leaks-those articles are also on the site.. on each movie's page)
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If there would be such body, we'd get rid of many of the arguments regarding total BOI .
Producers wouldn't be able to lie about takings.
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