Telugu cinema wouldn’t have silver jubilee films again.

Indian cinema had this unique culture over the year, of measuring a movie by the number of days it ran at the theatres. A hit movie would run for 100 days in the theatres ideally, and an average movie around 50 days. Silver Jubilee, or being 25 weeks in the theatre is the sign of a blockbuster. Very few films a decade have that rare distinction. We fans, industry people and actors celebrated each milestone 50 days, 100 days and 175 days grandly. It worked perfectly as a metric to measure the movie’s success.

But not all 100 days movie are equal success. Some of them run in more theatres. A movie that ran for “100 days in 100 centers” is a bigger hit than a movie that for “100 days in 80 centers”. BTW, in film terms, center means a town or city. The calculation was simple. The more the centers, the bigger the hit. The number of centers a movie had for 100 days was a testament to the hero’s stamina. Peculiarly, what the centers system couldn’t answer was which film was a bigger hit. A film that ran for 100 days in 50 centers, but had only 10 centers for 175 days or the one that ran for 100 days in 40 centers and ran for 175 days in 20 centers! See the paradox. Allu Arjun’s first film Gangotri ran for 100 days in 54 centers. Yet his third film Bunny, which was a much bigger hit, collected 40% more had only 35 centers. Yamadonga was the biggest hit of NTR’s career. Yet it had only 63 centers for 100 days, where as Adi had 95 centers. There are many more such instances.

Back then and even today all these centers, records and jazz don’t matter to a normal movie goer. They only know two things – good film, bad film. But, for the fans who have immense loyalties to the star, rivalries with other actor’s fans the “boxoffice records” meant more than a good movie itself. For me as a hardcore Chiranjeevi fan, all these mattered.  Release centers, 50 days centers, 100 days and silver jubilee centers. But things have changed and it’s time to move on.

The “Centers” Mania : Balakrishna’s Narasimha Naidu ran for 100 days in a record 105 centers. Chiranjeevi Indra passed that milestone and completed 100 days in 117 centers. NTR’s Simhadri beat that record by completing 100 days in 147 centers. Chiranjeevi’s Tagore finally beat that record by running for 100 days in 192 centers. Likewise, NTR’s Simhadri held the record for maximum number of silver jubilee centers. Then came Pokiri and so on.

The side-effects of records : These records were only meant for fans and the stars. But they burdened the industry quite a lot. Producers and distributors were forced to keep the movie in the theatres to please fans. For the theatre owners too it was a hassle, though they earn a flat rent irrespective of the boxoffice run. Empty theatres meant they wouldn’t be making money from parking fees, canteen sales which contributes a lot to their bottom-line. For many hit films, the producers had to spend 10-15% of his “take home” money (read : nett profits) on these records, which usually don’t last for more than a year. Also these theatres are ‘blocked’ by the old film, which is running to empty halls, where as if terminated it could accommodate a new film. Also these records can be easily manipulated by the Producer or Distributors, by running the film in the theatre and losing money. Thankfully, all this is fading quickly in Telugu Cinema.

Why we need a 100 days to make money? In those good old days, the number of theatres a movie released in were limited. A big star’s movie would release in about 150-200 theatres in the state. People dint have alternative entertainment choices. Movies used to run for long in theatres. Some movies even ran for years! For a movie to make Rs 20 crores at boxoffice it had to be in the over 100 theatres for about 100-150 days. For a producer to recover his money, the movie had to play in theatres for so long. So in those good old days more centers equals a bigger hit. This era lasted through the early and mid 2000s.

In this age of piracy, alternative entertainment options one cannot hope that his movie will run in theatres forever. Hence distributors of big-budget film adopted a strategy, known in Hollywood as “tentpole release”. The movie would open in the highest number of theatres, accommodate as many people in the first week and recover most of its budget in the first week few weeks itself. As the stakes are big in a expensive film, distributors want to reduce risk by getting maximum number of people to see it in the first week itself before any word-of-mouth about the movie spreads. This is the reason why we see many films that just seemed like ordinary films, yet are termed “hits” at boxoffice as they made big money.

Gross – the global standard : The metric used across the world to see which movie is a bigger hit is the “boxoffice gross”. Which simply is the amount of money the movie made by selling tickets at theatres. The more number of people see the film, the higher the gross. As simple as that.  The film that has a higher gross is a bigger hit. A film that grosses $100 million could get all that money in one week itself, or over a period of 4-8 weeks.

Avatar grossed over $2.7 billion worldwide, higher than Titanic’s $1.8 billion. It took Avatar only 21 weeks to collect this sum, where as Titanic took 41 weeks to reach that total. How long doesn’t matter. How much does. Avatar was watched by more people in theatres, collected more and is a bigger hit than Titanic. Period. All equations like “But, Avatar was made on budget of $300 million, where as Titanic was made for $180 million” don’t matter. Which film is more profitable is impossible to tell and doesn’t matter to most people. In all probability, Avatar will be a more profitable film to the studio than Titanic.

Short Life span of Telugu blockbusters : Jalsa released in over 1000 screens, grossed 20 crores in its first week. In the next 10 weeks the movie grossed another 22 crores. Nearly half the money it made was earned in the first one week itself. At 42 crores, the movie was telugu cinema’s second-highest grossing film back then. But it had only 25 centers for 100 days. Same case with Adhurs. The movie released in the most number of theatres, grossed over 20 crores at boxoffice in the first week. Went on to become one of the highest grossing films, yet it had only 15 centers for 100 days. Magadheera is Telugu cinema’s biggest hit till date. Yet it has only 3 centers for 175 days.

All the movies mentioned above released in over 800 screens instead of 300 like a few years back. Most of its audience got to see it in the first few weeks itself. So, why should they run in the theatres for longer? If the movie is terminated from theatres, it could accommodate a new film instead.

To simplify, the metric to measure a movie’s success has to change. It can’t be number of 100 days or 175 days centers, but boxoffice gross. The highest gross is the biggest hit. The second highest grosser is the second biggest hit and so on.

So, is that the end of the silver jubilee era?

Mostly, Yes. Probably, the film would be running for 25 weeks in a handful of theatres at most. Even Chiranjeevi, Mahesh Babu and NTR Jr can’t break their own 100 days and silver jubilee records. Not that they cant give hits like Tagore, Pokiri, Simhadri again. But the era where a film runs for months together in theatres is gone. All the records that were made between 2003 and 2008 will remain unbroken in the future, in all probability.

On the 175^th day, blockbusters would be making attempts to create “records” on a newer turfs. On television, for the highest TRPs. On home-video, for most number of DVDs and Blu-Ray sold. On the internet, on which is the most downloaded film. So, records are here to stay but have a new address. Let’s take our fight to the next level.