when i posted the 1st part of this series about ‘Buzz’  (http://www.naachgaana.com/2012/05/30/yaar-ye-15th-august-kab-ayegaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa/) many cud not understand that it was a trade related post and not ‘fan rant’ as many call it. so i had to edit and add a sub heading. this time i am giving a sub-heading rightaway.

as we saw in the last part, ‘Buzz’ is not something abstract that u can feel but not measure or some ‘mysterious’ commodity’ that gets created out of some magic or miracle. Buzz is  mostly abt the frequency of  TV promos, the boxoffice fate of the  previous films of the stars and the team and the budget and scale of promotions.

here we talk about  ’capacity’ as vested interests (the kind who follow 70s methods) have been coming up with one weird theory after another.

the capacity of a film, any film, is not unlimited. also its not decided by the producer. the capacity to collect is directly proportionate to to the numbers of ppl willing to watch it and is not decided by the number of prints/screens. the producer can only try to estimate it.  just consider the following ridiculous chart.

note – no need to read the whole ridiculous chart. i have pointed out the relevant points below.

Movie	Release size(Screens)	Average ticket price	7 Days Capacity	Occupancy %	First 7 days collections
Three Idiots	1500	100	105	74.00%	78.00
Ek Tha Tiger	3500	140	330	100.00%	330.00
Ek Tha Tiger	3500	140	330	80.00%	264.00
Ek Tha Tiger	3500	140	330	75.00%	247.50
Ek Tha Tiger	3500	140	330	70.00%	231.00
Ek Tha Tiger	3500	140	330	65.00%	214.50
Ek Tha Tiger	3500	140	330	60.00%	198.00
Ek Tha Tiger	3500	140	330	55.00%	181.50
Ek Tha Tiger	3500	140	330	50.00%	165.00
Ek Tha Tiger	3500	140	330	45.00%	148.50
Ek Tha Tiger	3500	140	330	40.00%	132.00
Ek Tha Tiger	3500	140	330	35.00%	115.50
Ek Tha Tiger	3500	140	330	30.00%	99.00

 

according to this chart if ek tha tiger releases with 3500 prints and  collects 99 cr in 1st 7 days, it wud have collected only 30% of the capacity (bottom row in the chart). and to collect even 75% (to be at par with 3 idiots) ett needs to collect 247 cr in the 1st week itself. (3 idiots had collected 78 in 1st week)

its so simple to see that if the film collects 30% of the so called ‘capacity’, anything that has gone wrong is the producers estimate of the number of prints and screens needed and not the film. ett cud have easly collected 99 cr with 1200 prints  making it 100% or with 1500 prints making it 75%.

also, as a hypothesis, if u release a film with 100000 prints, does its one week capacity become 10000 cr? ridiculkous.

so two points.

1. when the larger and larger numbers of prints are being released, percentage becomes irrelevant. its just done to collect fast rather than collect more.

2. the ‘actual capacity’ of a film to collect remains fixed (number of ppl willing to watch it multiplied by average ticekt price) as opposed to the ‘technical capacity’ of total number of seats available multiplied by average ticket price.

so percentage and capacity dont matter in ETTs case. nor does trending. its the final numbers that matter.