Akshay Kumar’s latest offering, Samrat Prithviraj, which was made on a whopping budget of Rs. 200 crore (including marketing and promotion, as well as interest costs), has proved to be an abysmal box office failure in India, barely managing to garner a meagre Rs. 70 crore. Moreover, it did not make any significant headway in overseas markets either.
Samrat Prithviraj found it arduous to procure a mere $2 million from the international territories. In terms of INR, the movie made only a total of Rs. 15 crores abroad. On a global scale, the theatrical revenues of Samrat Prithviraj are estimated to have exceeded Rs. 90 crores.
Concerning the distributor’s cut, producer Yash Raj Films is expected to bring in roughly Rs. 31.5 crores from India and Rs. 5.85 crores from foreign regions. To break it down, of the Rs. 200 crore budget for Samrat Prithviraj, it is estimated that the theatrical returns would total around Rs. 36-37 crores with additional proceeds of Rs. 10 crores from music rights. With the remaining amount, the producers have sold their digital rights to Amazon Prime with a 4 week window, while the satellite rights have been granted to the Star Network under YRF’s overall agreement.
YRF has recovered a staggering amount of Rs. 100 crores through the sale of satellite and digital rights, resulting in an overall income of approx. Rs. 150 crores as opposed to its budget of Rs. 200 crore. Unsurprisingly, the banner has incurred a major financial deficit of approx. Rs. 50 crores due to Samrat Prithviraj and the leading hero, Akshay Kumar has not escaped unscathed either. Rather than opt for the usual 100% upfront fee model, the Khiladi had signed a hybrid deal [signing fee+profit share] meaning he was paid much less than his usual market value, resulting in yet another financial blow for the banner.
All the focus is now on Akshay to achieve success with his latest venture Raksha Bandhan, as his previous movies were big flops in theatres. Furthermore, this is the fourth consecutive failure for the production company YRF. Jayeshbhai Jordaar, Bunty Aur Babli 2, and Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar were all disasters in terms of ticket sales, despite the company having ensured that the costs remained under control and there were beneficial deals for them in the back–end.
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%
