Master does Rs 200 crore pre-release business!
The makers of Vijay’s Master have locked almost all the business deals three months prior to its release. The fact that they have closed all the business deals even before the release of a teaser or trailer says volumes about the expectations on the film. ‘Master’ is written and directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj, who is fresh from the blockbuster success of ‘Kaithi’. Along with Vijay, the film has a big star cast comprising of Vijay Sethupathi, Malavika Mohanan, Andrea Jeremiah, Arjun Das, Shanthanu Bhagyaraj and Gouri Kishan. The presence of such a star-studded is also one of the biggest factors that has heightened the expectations.
While 200 crore box office gross is still an unachievable milestone for many actors, the pre-release business of ‘Master’ including satellite, digital and audio rights have comfortably crossed the 200 crore mark. Vijay’s last release ‘Bigil’ was a huge success that fetched over Rs 300 crore. The film’s Tamil Nadu distribution rights were sold for a whopping Rs 83 rights. Though it reaped huge revenue, the distributors made only marginal profits or just managed to achieve break-even.
So this time for ‘Master’, Vijay has personally intervened to make sure that the distributors get a fair deal. Even though the film was offered over Rs 83 crore for rights, the makers decided to settle for an amount of Rs 68 cr (Rs 77 cr including GST). They have now sold the film directly to sub-distributors through Seven Screen Studios who are also the co-producers.
Likewise in Kerala, ‘Bigil’ was sold for Rs 6.50 crore and it earned a share of Rs 950 crore. Since there exists a release restriction for non-Malayalam films, the rights for ‘Master’ have been sold for a lesser amount of Rs. 6.25 crore. Listin Stephen’s Magic Frames will be releasing the film in Travancore region Fortune Cinemas have procured the rights in Malabar and Kochi region.
In the two Telugu-speaking states, ‘Master’ rights have been sold for Rs 9 crore to East Coast Productions. The same distributors acquired ‘Bigil’ for Rs 8 crore and earned a profit of Rs 10 crore. In Karnataka, ‘Bigil’ earned a profit Rs 10 crore with the rights sold for Rs 8.50 crore. Dheeraj Enterprises has procured the rights this time for Rs. 8.65 crore. All other rights have been sold except for Hindi dubbing and North India area rights which is expected to be sold around Rs 22-24 crore.
United India Exports and Malik Streams have bought the overseas rights for Rs. 29.50 crore. The distribution house is expected to further sell the rights to other sub-distributors and earn around Rs. 35-40 crore. They will be releasing the film in Sri Lanka, Canada, USA, Thailand, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Australia.
Taking into account the non-theatrical rights, Sony Music has acquired the audio rights of ‘Master’ for Rs 4.50 crore. Market leader Sun TV has bought the satellite rights for Rs 32 crore while Amazon Prime has bagged the digital streaming rights for Rs 22 crore, which is a new record for a Tamil film.
