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Posted by Jim Bedford (Member # 4) on 06-05-2009, 07:47 AM:
 
There's been reports over the last month about US Bollywood showing theatres closing a month or so ago due to no product because of this dispute between Indian theatre owners and film producers. One thing interesting about this is the settlement is not only for theatre owners to pay a descending percentage rate (gee, I wonder where they got this idea from?) but that the producers would pay the theatres rebates for low-grossing/low-performing titles. (Hear that, producers of DELGO and BATTLE FOR TERRA?)

NY Times: Bollywood is back

Bollywood Settles Dispute With Theater Owners

By VIKAS BAJAJ
Published: June 5, 2009

MUMBAI — Indian filmmakers and theater owners settled a two-month dispute about the sharing of ticket revenue Friday, paving the way for new Hindi movie releases beginning next week, industry officials said.

Producers and distributors had held back new movies from multiscreen theater companies since early April, demanding that they get an equal share of revenue from ticket sales. The theater owners said a 50-50 revenue split was unacceptable, given that many Hindi-language films do poorly at the box office.

Until the strike, revenue-sharing arrangements had been negotiated movie by movie.

Under the deal struck Friday, film producers are to get half of the revenue for the first week of releases, and a smaller share for each subsequent week: 42 percent for the second week, 37 for the third and 32 for the fourth. Distributors and producers will earn bonuses for films that do exceptionally well but will have to pay rebates for movies that do very poorly.

“Basically it’s a win for all,” said Amit Khanna, chairman of Reliance Entertainment, a big production house that also owns a cinema company. His company plans to release a film as early as next week: “Kal Kisne Dekha,” which means “Who knows what will happen tomorrow.”

Deepak Asher, president of the Multiplex Association of India and a director of INOX Leisure, a theater chain, said the theaters were ready to get back to business.

“All of us are happy about the deal,” he said.

Under the previous movie-by-movie negotiation system, producers and distributors said that they often got less than 50 percent of revenue and that theater owners would collectively dictate terms to distributors.

The theater owners denied that they had colluded and said producers and distributors often received the majority of revenue from successful movies.

Distributors and theater owners will now have to figure out how to release the backlog of movies that were delayed because of the strike. On Friday, some production companies started announcing release dates for their coming movies.

During the strike, both sides probably suffered significant losses — especially in May, a month when many schools are closed before the monsoons.

There was a steep drop in box-office revenue in April to 260 million rupees, or $5.5 million, from 1.1 billion rupees in same month a year earlier, according to IBOS, a film-industry news service. April box office sales were also probably hurt by the second season of the Indian Premier League cricket tournament. Data for May were not available.

The strike primarily affected Hindi-language films, which are watched throughout the country but are most popular in the north. Films made in other languages experienced a slight lift at the box office because of the reduced competition.

Although the strike was directed at multiple-screen theaters, producers and distributors did not release many movies in older, single-screen cinemas that can still be found across India.

One historic theater, the Regal Cinema in south Mumbai near the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel, was temporarily closed last month because of the strike.
 

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Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 06-05-2009, 08:01 AM:
 
B.F.

I see that The Nugget has yet to play Chandni Chawk To China .

We have a print in the Depot.
 

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Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 06-05-2009, 10:34 AM:
 
That's probably the print I ran. I don't recall it being brand new when we got it.

At the Regency Tamarac we are practically 100% Bollywood now with an occasional real movie. Or at least it seems that way.
 

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Posted by Galen Murphy-Fahlgren (Member # 4535) on 06-05-2009, 02:23 PM:
 
All the chains agreed to the terms of Big Cinemas' agreement then? Last I had heard (last night) only Big had settled and all the other chains were holding out for a couple more percent.
 

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Posted by Bob Jones (Member # 1756) on 06-06-2009, 12:11 AM:
 
"Under the previous movie-by-movie negotiation system, producers and distributors said that they often got less than 50 percent of revenue and that theater owners would collectively dictate terms to distributors."

The theater owners "dictating" terms to the distributors??? How dare they -- who do they think they are??? I'm sure the wheels in some Hollywood shark's mind is turning - thinking of how he could "train" Bollywood distribution -- he could become KING!!!
 

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Posted by Geena Phillips (Member # 3726) on 06-09-2009, 07:29 PM:
 

quote: Galen Murphy-Fahlgren

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All the chains agreed to the terms of Big Cinemas' agreement then? Last I had heard (last night) only Big had settled and all the other chains were holding out for a couple more percent.

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