Trending, my foot!

when on a sleepy summer friday roughly 1.5  lakh yuppies buying 250 rs weekend  ticekts in posh gurgaon multiplexes and other such high end outlets, went to watch vicky donor, they grossed 2.50 cr and  they loved the cheesy comedy (as shallow and superficial as the corporate yuppies were) and sent back a larger number to theatres on saturday, (wat –  maybe  2 lakhs ppl.). on sunday they sent back another 3.50 lakh ppl but thats the highest they cud manage and over the entire weekend they sent roughly 6  laks ppl to watch the salacious sex comedy on sperm donation.

 

as the weekday ticekt rates came down, slowly but painfully, over next 50 days,  as theatres lost precious ‘property time’ and interest on borrowings grew for poor john abraham these 6  lakh ppl convinced roughly 50 laks ppl to watch vicky donor. mostly from one socio-economic-cultural background.

 

by the time the 2nd show  of bodyguard was over on wednesday 31 august 2012, 6 lakh ppl had already watched it buying tickets at 300 rs, 250 rs, 150 rs, 120 rs, 80 rs, 60 rs and even 40 rs grossing 10 cr (nett of 22 = gross 30 divided by 3 for the 1st two shows)

by the evening, through word-of-mouth, word-of-text, word-of-mobile, word-of- facebook, word -of-tv newsbyte  and word-of-wat not they had sent roughly 30 lakh ppl to the theaters to watch bodyguard.

by the 3rd of the release  day those 30 laks had sent back roughly 70 lakh ppl in a tizzy, to multiplexes and single screens, in mumbai and delhi, patna and panipat, saket and sultanpur, grossing roughly 70 cr.

 

these 30 lakhs finally managed to convince 2 cr ppl to watch bodyguard, all within 20 days of its releaae grossing close to 200 cr. (nett 145+).

 

so which is a better trending? which is more reflective of quality of the film? which is the kind of trending producers wud want? and MOST IMPORTANTLY which is the kind of trending audiences shud be trusting?

your guess is as good as mine.

 

note – all figures are rough estimates and calculations, plz dont quibble over them and focus on the main point