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ShareIndustry estimates suggest it has earned double its production cost of Rs6 cr
A starcast comprising of a crow and a child actress in a horror film by a director whose reputation went for a toss, when he almost spoofed Sholay. All this, minus any lavish marketing or promotional activity.
Sounds like a perfect recipe for a box-office dud? Quite the other way around, actually.
Phoonk, the latest flick from from Ram Gopal Varma, has taken both the film industry and audiences by surprise. Critics gave average reviews to this film, which released last Friday alongside formidable competition from two releases - Maan Gaye Mughal-e-Azam and Mumbai Meri Jaan - apart from a Yash Raj's Bachna Ae Haseeno, which released the week before.
But exhibitors say that despite this, Phoonk registered nearly houseful collections during the weekend, and still continues to do so, across all major territories.
Industry estimates suggest the film, made at a budget of Rs5-6 crore has already earned close to double the amount through nationwide box office. And all this despite being allotted only one or two shows in single screens, going up to three shows per day in multiplexes.
"That's a drastic change from a week before, where multiplexes were reluctant to allocate even two shows per day to Phoonk, because of low confidence levels in the film. But all that's changed now, since the weekend showed proved that Phoonk is already a hit," said trade analyst Komal Nahta. Navin Shah, CEO of P9 Experience, a film marketing company, said that the dynamics of the film business is such that all bets are on the revenues it garners in the opening weekend. "That decides whether the film is a hit or not," he said.
What triggered this response? A small gimmick actually, say trade pundits and exhibitors. Before the film's release, the producers of the film ran a simple SMS contest, the winners of which would be given the task of sitting through the film alone in an auditorium. If they managed to do that, they would win a sum of Rs5 lakh. It's a marketing and building strategy Hollywood has used for publicising Evil Dead, The Exorcist - horror films which are considered cult classics.
"The activity was well-publicised in the media. The buzz was created there itself," said Abhishek Raina, head of marketing, Fame Cinemas. "We received almost 90% collections in our morning shows on Friday and all the weekend shows were nearly housefull. This made us introduce more shows to accommodate the demand." Bhumika Tewari, AVP programming, Fun Cinemas, said that the demand was high because its been a while since a good horror film was released.
