Big Production House To Shut Down Mid-Level Films

Films are of three types: the ones made with star heroes, the ones made with Tier-2 heroes and the ones made with newcomers. Now, many top production houses are said to be giving up the idea of making a movie with mid-range heroes, so that they will not face losses. You know why?

Take, for example, a movie like “Little Hearts” which is made with a budget of around ₹ 1 crore, and it made almost ₹20 crores in profits for the makers. Looking at this, many producers often tend to make such movies. But the success rate of those films is likely one film in 5 years, that’s it. Coming to mid-range movies, if films like DJ Tillu are made with a budget of ₹10-15 crores, they make ₹20-30 crores in profits for the makers. But that is also happening once in a blue moon. However, if a small budgeted movie flops, no money is ever lost, but if a mid-range movie flops, almost ₹10 crores loss is on the cards. That’s scaring many producers now.

However, if they make a film with a star hero with around ₹120-150 crores budget, almost 75% of the investment is being recovered through non-theatrical rights and the theatrical rights are pushing the makers into a no-loss no-profit zone. If the film flops, distributors will lose some percentage, and if it becomes a blockbuster, the producer will get a surplus. Banking on this very same logic, right now Mythri Movie Makers is said to be showing no interest in making mid-range films. Either they will make completely small budgeted films that will be carved out at a cut-throat price, and make enough sales due to the production house’s image.

Whether this logic will hold good or not cannot be judged at the moment, but then, many big producers are giving up on these medium-range movies.