HOLLYWOOD VS BOLLYWOOD
Post 1940’s, film making and Movie Business had a different equation. In the West, the filmmaking and screening process was strictly owned by a few studios. In the East, filmmaking was strongly influenced by Hollywood. The Indian film industry, for instance, popularly known as “Bollywood,” was captivated by the style of Hollywood filmmaking.
There were few Genius namely Mr. V. Shantaram, Raj Kapoor, Gurudutt and Satyajit Ray in India who had mastered the art in both commercial and meaningful cinema.
The Hollywood film industry is big and widely accepted in the field of entertainment. Post second world war there has been a lot of ups and downs but filmmaking was remain experimental in Hollywood and technically films got color and sound and good quality animations.
Before world war 2, Top studio’s those days had stars working under contract. That means one particular star will only work for a particular studio, say Universal or paramount. Star were working on salary basis. The film screening ,run and theatres were owned by big studios. It was a difficult time for small movie producers and distributors.
After world war 2 a lot of change happened in technology and innovation. By that time the studios had given up theater chains and television were introduced. The potential of television market was later understood, when Universal studio embraces television. Universal became the premiere television producer for Hollywood. They utilized the backlot to make television shows like bonanza. Sound stages were utilized to make sitcoms
Films, namely Wizard of Oz and Gone With The Wind were the earlier two successes from Hollywood. Thereafter trends follow in terms of making films on war, romance, comedy and magic. This change and acceptance led to create a market that kept investors and producers in a profitable situation Selling theatrical rights, satellite rights, video on demand, home entertainment and merchandising are profit making tools used these days.
The films in South Asia 20 years ago were labeled successful if they completed 25 weeks from the date of release. The Indian Film Industry, popularly known as “Bollywood,” is well known worldwide for its content and music.
Success Parameters for Indian Films: Insights from 30 Years Ago
Silver jubilee
If the film runs for a continuous 25 weeks at the box office, it was labeled as silver jubilee.
Golden jubilee
After silver jubilee , if the film runs for 50 weeks , it
was tagged as golden jubilee. Golden jubilee tags the film as superhit.
Platinum jubilee
75 weeks of successful run at the box office the film would
entitled to called a platinum jubilee
Diamond jubilee
Films which would complete 100 weeks at the Boxoffice are
super duper hit movies. There were only few movies which would fit the category
of a diamond jubilee film.
Marketing for film
Today, right from pre to post production of a film there are new ways to promote and market a film. The right kind of marketing mix ripe great success at the box office.
Before film release :
- First look
- Teaser release
- Trailer release ( earlier only there was one trailer shown
during intervals of any film viewing.
Now you get trailer 1 , trailer 2 and 3 of a same film ) - Song release
- Promotion
- Satellite rights sale before release
- Online release rights ( OTT )
The entire concept of new age marketing add the operating expense of a film that accounts in the film budget.
Empowering Viewers in the Movie Business: The Rise of Online Reviews and Accessibility
Now viewers get more options to watch more than one film in a multiplex. Gone are the days where you used to do advanced booking of a film by standing in long queues outside the ticket window. There apps and website where you can book online tickets, for instance apps like bookmyshow and PVR. Here not only films but you can book tickets for plays, events and exhibitions. There are provision to add snacks while booking the tickets on online platforms.
In the current age, cine viewers also review a film online. Mouthshut.com, bookmyshow and some other platforms provide a section where the viewer can write their reviews of the film they watched in more than 100words. The word film critics are not official nowadays. Everyone can be a film critic today.
Maximizing Box Office Success in the Movie Business: Key Factors for Revenue Generation
Films now earns revenue even before there release.
Folllowing are crucial,if you want to achieve good box office results :
- The movie starcast are saleable
- Big budget
- Big banner production
- Unique content ( if content is unique then the low budgets films are also making profits).
The chain goes like this: after a film is produced, the producers sell it to distributors for exhibition in both domestic and overseas territories. Then there are sale of satellite rights, online partners and home entertainment. The global digital content market is flourishing. Now the production houses are aware and releasing trailers of their movies with a credit announcement of their online digital partners.
Many a times it happens that the films earns profit before release. This is because the production house smartly indulge in trade with the aforementioned components/Sometimes times it is a risk when a producer makes a film and do not get right distributor. If there is no distributor, no one will buy the film and the producer has to suffer heavy losses. The distributor than tie up with the exhibitor to release the film in single screens and multiplexes. Profit sharing between distributor and exhibitor are in agreed proportion after paying taxes.
In numbers in ASIA
1st week collection
50% to distributor and 50% to exhibitor
Consecutively the share for exhibitor increased from second week onwards
2nd week
42% to distributor and 58% to exhibitor
3rd week
35% to distributor and 65% to exhibitor
And Theron for whatever weeks the film runs the exhibitor keep 70% of the collection.
In the current scenario, every production house wants to make such film which fetch maximum numbers in the first two weeks. Because the first two weeks are money spinners for both the producer and the distributor. The entire definition of film success across the world has changed over time.
In the current era, in some countries, only 3 days count. Earlier it was calculation of single screen collection and now films collection depends on how it fared at the multiplexes.
People now watch a movie after reading positive reviews. It started another trend of paid preview and review. This affects the business of a film in the first 5 day of the release. There are films which are extremely bad but are successful in terms of box office numbers . On the other hand there are good film in terms of story and content which could not achieved desire numbers at the box office.
One thing is for sure, it is difficult for audience to celebrate a good movie for a longtime. This is because in the current era, the age of the movie from the day of its release is just one month unlike 30 years back, film used to run for a longer period.
