RRR Pre-release business; Rajamouli's epic raises a Record breaking Rs. 750 crores recoveries

By Jatinder Singh

Published on Mar 23, 2022 | 07:44 PM IST | 1.1M

RRR Pre release business (image courtesy of DVV)

The Biggest movie of the year will be releasing in the cinemas this Friday and it is justifying the B word. S.S. Rajamouli’s RRR starring Ram Charan, NTR Jr., Alia Bhatt and Ajay Devgn is to raise nearly Rs. 470 crores for its theatrical rights. The theatrical pre-release business is the highest ever for an Indian movie, going well over Baahubali: The Conclusion (Rs. 350 crores). Another Rs. 275-300 crores is to be realised from the non-theatrical revenues, giving it recoveries in the north of Rs. 750 crores at the moment.

The film reportedly cost Rs. 336 crores in making before considering the talent cost of the lead stars and director as per the data submitted by the production to AP government for ticket hike. The trio has signed backend deals with the production and are expected to take home Rs. 250-300 crores in between them. The final cost are expected to be around Rs. 650 crores plus and the recoveries will be in the range of Rs. 700-850 crores depending on how film fares at the box office.

Most of these deals were entered months back, some going back even years. Almost all of them were renegotiated numerous times, most getting discounts due to delays and some are in an entirely different form. For instance, the North India theatrical rights along with all languages electronic, satellite and digital rights were sold in a composite deal of Rs. 350 crores to a one party last year. After getting delayed twice, the final deal is entirely different, with non-theatrical rights resold to Zee and other parties, while the North India theatrical deal is now on purely commission basis. For the purpose of this story, a value needs to be put for the theatrical rights and that’s totally arbitrary, one can put Rs. 50-60 crores for it or Rs. 90 crores as we did.

The territory wise revenue from theatrical rights for RRR is as follows:

Nizam - Rs. 70 crores

Ceeded - Rs. 45 crores

Andhra - Rs. 98 crores

AP/TS - Rs. 213 crores

Karnataka - Rs. 45 crores

Tamil Nadu - Rs. 42 crores

Kerala - Rs. 10 crores

North India - Rs. 90 crores (valued)

India - Rs. 400 crores

Overseas - Rs. 68 crores

Total - Rs. 468 crores