Bajirao Mastani’s and Dilwale 18 December box office clash may spoil exhibitors’ ad revenue

MUMBAI: Having two big #Bollywood releases on December 18 — #Dilwale and #Bajirao #Mastani — will chime nicely with the holiday spirit, but exhibitors, who will welcome the resulting audience surge, said there is one downside to the two-in-one-week blitz. Revenue from advertising films that are shown in movie halls would have been greater had both films been released separately, they said.

Both Sanjay Leela Bhansalidirected Bajirao Mastani and Shah Rukh Khan-Kajol-starrer Dilwale are regarded as potential crowd pullers by movie chains such as PVR and Inox. Typically, they raise rates for in-cinema advertising and other brand activations by almost 100% for big releases.Such films attract marketers even at steep tariff rates because most shows are dedicated to such movies, thereby having an almost assured audience.

“If the two movies had released on different dates, the ad revenues would have been much higher,” said Ajay Mehta, managing director, Interactive Television, WPP’s cinema advertising unit. “Advertising peaks in the first week of a big release and had the releases been spread out, there would have been additional revenues, especially because it is the festive season and alot of advertisers are investing in cinema for the impact it can deliver.” “Undoubtedly, these films churn out auxiliary box office collections, admits and sales revenues. Conflict of two blockbusters on the same day is indeed a predicament,” said Rajesh Makhija, associate vice-president of sales and marketing at Carnival Cinemas, which owns Big Cinemas. Ad sales growth accelerates 5-7% on the back of such blockbusters in any given year, but slows when two of them clash at the box office, he said.

Typically, advertisers spend heavily on about moa dozen blockbusters in a year such as those featuring the three Khans, Hrithik Roshan and big Hollywood franchises, said Mehta. Incidentally, Bollywood clearly rules here — in terms of advertising.

“#RanbirKapoor- #DeepikaPadukone starrer #Tamasha attracted more advertisers than #JamesBond’s #Spectre,” said Mehta. For such big-ticket releases, while #PVR increases its ad rates by 100%, Inox raises them by 50-100%. Tariffs vary between big cities and small towns.

The release of two big movies on the same date may not be the best scenario for theatre chains as it rules out the opportunity to earn more advertising revenue, said Vishal Anand, vice-president of sales at Inox. But the greater occupancy should balance things out.

“For consumers, it is great and we will see 100% occupancy during the weekends and over 90% occupancy on weekdays,” he said. “Therefore it is good news for advertisers, too.” Anand said four-five such releases in a year contribute about 20% to overall revenue.

PVR has figured out a way to hedge itself against hits and misses. “We encourage advertisers to sign long-term deals with us, and 85% of our advertisers are onboard for 12-15 months,” said Gautam Dutta, CEO, PVR Cinemas. “This takes care of the nonblockbuster movies, too. For standalone advertisers who come just on the back of a blockbuster movie for a few weeks, we charge a premium of 100%,” he said.

 Bureau Report