How the Grinch stole X'mas movie releases!

The Kerala State Exhibitors Association has once again decided to play Grinch this Christmas season as a standoff between the group and the film producers forum over division of profits has put all major releases in limbo. So, any plans to watch Dulquer Salmaan as the charming boy next door in Jomonte Suviseshangal or Mohanlal and Meena rekindle their romance in Munthirivallikal Thalirkumbol will have to take a rain check till this storm passes.
On Tuesday, the Kerala Producers Association had convened to discuss the theatre owners' demand for 'equal share of profit for all theatres in Kerala' irrespective of the multiplex or single screen status. Currently, multiplexes receive 50% of net profit from a ticket from first week onwards while in single screen A class and B class theatres, the exhibitors get 40% in the first week. This increases to 45% and 50% in the succeeding weeks.
The exhibitors' demand is that they should be entitled to 50% net profit from a ticket from Day 1 onwards. 'This is what's been granted to multiplexes, so why not to single screens?' asks the Exhibitors Federation president Liberty Basheer. 'In multiplexes, the profit sometimes rises as high as 70% in the fourth week while we only get 50% then.'
Producers' forum official Suresh Kumar says that the demand by theatre owners is unjustified as the net profits generated from multiplexes are higher than single screens.
Breaking down the figures, he explains that in a corporation like Trivandrum, in a single screen, the ticket is priced at `100. So, after corporation tax of `25 is deducted, the net profit is `75, which is shared between the producers, distributors and exhibitors.
'If we agree to the theatre owners' demands of equal sharing, then the exhibitors get 50% of net while the producer and distributor has to share the other 50%. This would result in the theatre owners making more money than the producers,' says Suresh Kumar. 'In which business, do you handover others 50% of profit just for doing nothing? Producers take the risk of making movies by taking huge loans from people at high interest rates. And how can they expect us to just handover the earnings to them?'
In the case of multiplexes, the ticket price averages `150. 'In this case, the net profit is more and we can afford 50% revenue sharing,' he explains, adding that this is the system followed by multiplex chains across India.
The theatre owners' argument though is that only super hits make money and most of the theatres are running in loss. This year out of the 116 films released, 22 were super hits. 'Our revenue to run the theatres for the entire year comes only from these movies,' says Basheer.
However, Suresh says that 'this argument too is weak' as none of the single screens are ready to install online ticketing systems yet. 'If everything is computerised, their revenue would be revealed. That's why they are refusing such innovations,' he says. 'Also, how many single screens have shut down over the years because the films are not running?'
This year's Christmas was supposed to see the release of Dulquer's Jomonte Suviseshangal, Mohanlal's Munthirivallikal Thalirkumbol, Jayasurya's Fukri and Prithviraj's Ezra. On the reaction of the producers of these movies, Suresh says, 'It was a unanimous decision and they have all agreed that it's high time we call out the atrocities of theatre owners that is pulling down our industry. We have all agreed that no films will hit theatres till the issue is resolved, and we are hoping the government will step in.'
Incidentally, the exhibitors association had dashed some Christmas cheer last year as well when they planned to shut down A-class theatres in defiance to government's decision to levy `3 as cess aimed at funding a welfare scheme for the State's indigent cultural artistes.