News of Master‘s OTT release on Amazon Prime Video has exploded on social media like wildfire! While fans of lead actors Vijay and Vijay Sethupathi are rejoicing at the news, not all sections of people are ecstatic about the news. There are distinct murmurs of protests from theatre owners, who are annoyed with the move of releasing Master on streaming platforms so soon after its theatrical release, especially since the movie is still running to packed houses in the theatres.
Their contention is that the makers of Master, XB Creations should have and could have easily put off the OTT release of Master for the benefit of theatre-owners. The movie is still generating considerable footfalls in theatres. In prime areas, and on weekends and the Republic Day holiday the footfall in theatres to watch Master was even higher. Some theatre-owners are calling it a selfish move on the part of Master makers. They say the makers have no care for the financial health of theatres. Though theatre-owners are now in the profit zone with the release of Master, the past ten months have been disastrous for theatres, and difficult to recover from. A few more weeks of the hit movie in theatres would have helped them tremendously.
Master is the first film post the pandemic that has managed to draw audiences back into the theatres since they reopened in November. The lackluster November and December months of poor footfalls in theatres were forgotten in the euphoria of the success of Master which released on Pongal in theatres. The exceptional response to Master has convinced some theatre owners that the movie could have been allowed to run for at least two more weeks in theatres. They have accused the makers of Master of only thinking about their own profit, given the astounding price they’ve sold Master to the three OTT platforms that will stream Master – Amazon Prime Video, Tentkotta and Simply South.
Rakesh Gowthaman, owner of Vettri Theatres in Chennai, share with Indian Express, “We were all shocked. We would have actually made profits in the third and fourth week, and now this OTT release will eat into our weekend crowds. We are about to take a big hit.”
Rakesh explains that profit sharing between producers and exhibitors works on a 70-30 revenue split basis when the movie has a big star like Vijay. That means, in every Rs 100 profit that theatre-owners make on a ticket, Rs 70 goes to the producers, and Rs 30 to the theatres. This system is followed for around the first two weeks after a film’s release. From the third week onwards, the profit share of theatre-owners goes up by around 10 per cent. So the third week onwards is more profitable for the theatre-owners.
Rakesh also told Indian Express that some theatres had agreed to an 80-20 profit-sharing with the producers of Master as a goodwill gesture. Master’s early OTT release will certainly eat into the theatre-owners’ profits and not the producers’.
Tirupur Subramaniam, President of Tamil Nadu Theatre Owners’ Association, also shared with Indian Express that exhibitors had no inkling of Master’s early OTT release and were kept in the dark by the producers. “We had no idea,” he says of Master releasing so soon on Amazon Prime Video.
The Association is planning a course of action against Master makers, which they will release soon.
Another Tamil film distributor Karthik Ravivarma wrote on Twitter, “TN theater owners have begun to express their opposition to the release of #Master on OTT in 2 weeks”. He has added that theatre-owners are in talks with the producer, to carve out a solution to the problem. The last minute discussions have happened as theatre-owners were completely taken by surprise by the OTT release decision of Master producers.
Even some common folks are questioning the wisdom of releasing Master so soon on OTT, even as it is still enjoying a great run at the theatres. Social media is rife with people accusing Master makers of profiteering from its OTT release without thinking about theatre-owners’ fiscal worries.
Many are giving the recent example of Telugu film Krack, and questioning why Master makers do not follow the lead set by Krack makers. The Telugu film Krack is a hit in theatres, just like Master. It was released in theatres just before Pongal, on 9th January. It was to release digitally on Aha Video on 29th January, 20 days after theatrical release. But seeing that the movie is still successfully running in theatres and bringing in audiences, the producer Tagore Madhu, and lead actors Ravi Teja and Shruti Haasan requested Aha Video to push back the digital release date on the platform.
To the credit of Aha Video, it immediately agreed to their request, putting the interests of theatre owners before its own. This despite having paid the highest sum it has paid until now to acquire the streaming rights for Krack. So Krack will now release on Aha Video on 5th February, one week after the original release date of 29th January.
Check out the official press release from Aha Video, where it has pledged to keep the interests of theatre owners first –
#KrackOnAHA@RaviTeja_offl @shrutihaasan @megopichand @MusicThaman @TagoreMadhu @TheKrackMovie pic.twitter.com/emvw9pUgUb
— ahavideoin (@ahavideoIN) January 25, 2021
The same could have been done by Master producers XB Creations. Their not being bothered is the reason why theatre owners are miffed with them. There is no other prominent movie release in sight that will give theatre-owners the same kind of footfalls as Master.
But, what’s done is done. We can only hope that Bollywood follows the footsteps of their south counterparts and releases their biggies such as Sooryavanshi, 83, Jersey and others in theatres soon. That’ll be happy days for theatre owners again!
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