Akshay Kumar's recently released Samrat Prithviraj has proved to be a box office disaster. Made on a budget of Rs. 200 crore [including P&A as well as interest costs], the film has failed to cross even Rs. 70 crore at the box office in India. As far as the overseas business is concerned, Samrat Prithviraj was literally a no-show.
It was a struggle for Samrat Prithviraj to collect even $2 million in the overseas belts. In INR terms, the movie collected under Rs. 15 crores outside of India. The worldwide theatrical gross of Samrat Prithviraj will fold in the range of Rs. 90 crores.
Talking of distributor share, the producer, Yash Raj Films will fetch approx. Rs. 31.5 crores from India, and approx. Rs. 5.85 crores from the international territories. Basically, of the Rs. 200 crore budget, the theatrical recovery for Samrat Prithviraj is around Rs. 36-37 crores, with music rights fetching another Rs. 10 crores. Of the remaining, the makers had sold their digital rights to Amazon Prime with a 4 week window whereas the Satellite rights are with Star Network under YRF's blanket deal.
YRF has fetched around Rs. 100 crore from the sale of satellite and digital rights, which has taken the overall recovery to approx. Rs. 150 crores, as against the budget of Rs. 200 crore. This has resulted in a major loss of revenues to YRF. The banner has lost approx. Rs. 50 crores on Samrat Prithviraj and the leading hero, Akshay Kumar too has lost some money on the film as he had not signed the film with 100% upfront fee model, as he does with other banners. It was a hybrid deal [signing fee+profit share], which means that the Khiladi too has earned much lower than his market value, resulting in a loss of revenue there too.
All eyes are now on Akshay to make a comeback with Raksha Bandhan, as his last few films have failed majorly on the theatrical front. This is also the 4th back to back disaster for the banner YRF, as before Samrat Prithviraj, films like Jayeshbhai Jordaar, Bunty Aur Babli 2 and Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar too have been theatrical disasters, though the banner didn't lose any money on them due to controlled cost and back end deals.
Economics of Samrat Prithviraj
Cost of Production + Prints and Publicity (P&A) – 200 cr.
TOTAL COST – 200 cr.
India Theatrical Box Office – 70 cr. [Estimated]
Distributor's share (A) - 31.50 cr.
Overseas Theatrical Box Office – 13 cr. [Estimated]
Distributor's share (B) - 5.85 cr.
Satellite, Digital Streaming Rights & Music Rights (C) – 110 cr.
TOTAL RECOVERIES (A+B+C) - 147.35 cr.
LOSS - 52.65 cr.
RETURN ON INVESTMENT (ROI) is negative 26.33%
