Was Ra One a Hit or Flop?

It’s been 2 years since one of India’s costliest films Ra One released in theatres, but the debate rages on to this day. Was Ra One a Hit or Flop? Don’t think that there has been a single day this question has not been asked by one of our many readers. Today, as the Shahrukh Khan – Kareena Kapoor starrer celebrates its 2nd anniversary, we hope to finally put an end to this debate once and for all.

Let’s start with the economics: The total investment on Ra One including print and advertising was Rs 135 crore. Eros International recovered a huge chunk of that investment when they sold the satellite and music rights of the film for Rs 40 crore. Since portions of the film were shot in United Kingdom, the UK government paid Rs 20 crore as subsidy (some trade analysts have quoted a figure of 25 crore). Home video rights must have fetched around 2 crore. The total non-theatrical revenue was approx Rs 62 crore.

Ra One Hit Or Flop?

Ra One Hit Or Flop?

Theatrical returns: The Hindi version of Ra One collected around 115 crore in India, regional dubbed versions collected 9 crore and total overseas business amounted to Rs 43 crore. The All-India distributors share including dubbed versions is 68 crore and overseas share is around 17 crore. In total, Eros recovered around 85 crore from theatrical business.

  • Total Revenue – Rs 147 crore
  • Total Investment – Rs 135 crore
  • Total Profit – Rs 12 crore

When a film has actually made a decent profit, why did Shahrukh Khan himself say that it didn’t quite work as well as he expected it to. That is because, as a film Ra One was a complete failure, critics and audience thrashed it.  For a film made on this scale and budget, it was expected to earn much more than it did. Also, a few individual distributors lost money, which isn’t usually the case for most SRK starrers. A few exhibitors who released the film on ‘fixed hire’ screens lost a bit of money. Ra One also under-performed in circuits like C.P and C.I and the distributor lost money. But all these losses put together isn’t big enough to call the film a ‘FLOP’.

In fact, Ra One did reasonably good business, the film’s total worldwide gross is around Rs 225 crore which is a huge figure even for films that release today. Only about 12 films have managed to collect 200 cr or more.

Like Rakesh Roshan’s Krrish 3 which releases next weekend, the risk that Shahrukh Khan took with Ra One was huge. The expectations were high, but the results were disappointing. But the very fact that a rejected film, recovered the investment that went into India’s most expensive film, is an achievement in itself. The film wasn’t a commercial failure, or even an above average grosser. Ra One was a HIT.

Note: SRK recovered a fair bit of money from all the record brand-tie up deals. We haven’t even taken that into consideration here.

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97 Comments

  • ra. one was a hit in india and superhit overseas although it faced needless negativity
    the only drawback were the director and the high budget .
    or else it would have been blockbuster

  • I thought a film has to double its budget for a hit status and three times more for blockbuster. Realistically it should have got an average status

  • In that way, even Kites is a Hit movie. I think we all know what makes a movie Hit and Flop. It’s the total domestic collection that counts to decide if the film is flop or not. I think you forgot one important think that if a film can be called a Hit this way, then there are hardly any film that can be called flop. Going by this way, you can also call “Kites” a super hit movie as it was sold to TV channel and distributors and others sections like music rights etc. with such a huge money that the film was profitable even before its release. So lets not call Ra.One is a Hit because it didn’t collect the amount from the domestic market that can make a Hit movie. Ra.One was a flop and it’s not unanswered question. It was declared to be a flop film. :)

  • Who told u, overseas collections and non-theatrical business a include in the verdict of movie! In that case it will be rare to get a flop in Bollywood. Flop films like TASHAN and SARKAR RAJ scored a good amount frm their non-theatrical business but that didnt clean their flop mark. Again A films like HUMKO TUMSE PYAR HAI and DOSTI has a good share in overseas but no plus it with their domestic collections n changed their verdict. Suppose UK didnt paid them subsidy, what will happen? And subsidy is being paid to Producers not Distributers.

  • The effort worth all the Respect !Spending an amount of 135 cr in India is really courageous. There is no question of this being flop yeah it wasn’t accepted and He accepted his failure in a good way.On the other note I would say people who make movies like joker call it a waste so decide which side are you!!!

  • Raone is one of the crapiest movies of bollywood history and a downfall in SRK’S career.i would say it will be a above average.
    But i don’t care about the verdict as there are some movies like ce and dabbang which were very average for me though were atbb.then ett,bodyguard,ready,dabbang2,all these are craps.while flops like lootera,guzaarish,madras cafe are great.

  • Indicine doesnt even know how much distributor share from the overseas total people get..they get 40%….40% of 46 cr is not 27cr….and from when did overseas,home video,satellite etc come into play to decide verdict of a movie lol

    • @Navoarsenal, it was a mistake that has been corrected. We do know that the overseas share is around 40-43%, depending on the release. The actual overseas collect is $9.4 million, dollar rate in 2011 was around Rs 46 in October 2011.

  • And i don’t think k3 will follow raone path.raone had a bad script.that’s why it couldn’t do good.
    K3 will have a good story.i’m damn sure.fingers crossed for k3.

  • According to romance new yr,k3 lifetime collection will be 85crs ! ! !
    Haha.proved that romance is a moron .lol.now i willn’t hate him.i sud show my sympathy for his mentalness.

  • I have no problem with the idea of making ra.one, only the motivation for the film,
    it is as is SRK was telling us I have so much money to spend, but it became i have so much
    to waste. Though i am not a fan of the film, i will not say it is crap, it his highest rated
    Film in the U.S, excluding Jab Tak Hai Jaan by critics among his last 5 films.
    Ra.One became the first Indian film to top the Amazon dvd chart for foreign films.
    Jab Tak Hai Jaan & Chennai Express also achieved that.
    As for hit or flop status, let the distributors worry about that.

  • Only theatrical business should be considered when declaring a film hit or flop.

    Distributors have an expected number in their mind when releasing a film. They estimate it based on the subject and starcast of the film. If a film “hits” that number, it’s called a hit.

  • Most ambitious films by hindi actors –
    Himmatwala (3100 screens) 49cr
    Boss (2750 screens) 56cr
    Dabangg 2 (3450 screens) 158cr
    Talaash (2700 screens) 93cr
    Race 2 (3200 screens) 102cr
    Besharam (3550 screens) 59cr
    Chennai Express (3600 screens) 226cr
    What will Krrish 3 do in > 3900 screens

  • SRK filmography (2007 – 2013)
    Chak De India – 103cr
    Om Shanti Om – 150cr
    Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi – 158cr
    My Name is Khan – 200cr
    Ra.One – 202cr
    Don 2 – 206cr
    Jab Tak Hai Jaan – 234cr
    Chennai Express – 420cr

    7 steps up the ladder for fledged commercial releases.

    Some persons are celebrating 5 consecutive blockbusters with to and fro i.e upward-downward climb, how would he have broken 3 idiots record in such semi-progressive steps.

  • India’s most trusted site boxofficeindia decleare ra1 as a hit means hit, there is no more fight because we are not distributer. If ra1 release 2021 instade of 2011, then it will become sure shoot blockbuster.

  • @ghost
    do u think that tv rights music rights revenues added to ra one to make it hit
    if u think so then u are wrong
    ra1 budget is 135 cr it fetches 114 net and that after taking distributor s share 63
    ie it grossed 177 cr in total which gives it hit status
    lets move to ur kites example
    kites grossed 65cr total gross
    kites budget is 60cr
    the net gross is just 48 and that without taking distributors share
    so you can see that kites is flop from all respect while
    ra one is hit

  • So by this way talaash will be called as superhit as its budget around 40 crore and its collection in india and worldwide are 93 and 174 crore respectively despite this is the least promoted movie of the past year.

  • @ghost
    do u think that tv rights music rights revenues added to ra one to make it hit
    if u think so then u are wrong
    ra1 budget is 135 cr it fetches 114 net and that after taking distributor s share 63
    ie it grossed 177 cr in total which gives it hit status
    lets move to ur kites example
    kites grossed 65cr total gross
    kites budget is 60cr
    the net gross is just 48 and that without taking distributors share
    so you can see that kites is flop from all respect while
    ra one is hit

  • SRK is solely responsible for that 100 cr business.!! He should have done Shankar’s ROBO instead which he rejected.!!

  • A film makes 100 crores plus at a time when few films were doing it. How can such a film be called a flop? @awais – if a film has to make double the budget for being a hit then Dhoom 3 and Krrish 3 (100 crores budget) will flop because they have to make 200 crore to even be called hit. then they have to make 300 crores plus to be called blockbuster. Not possible. High budget films like these cannot be judged in such simple terms.

  • Ra.One had the potential to reach the sky but negative word of mouth killed it after 3 days. It did manage to rake in good amount 86cr in 5 day weekend and ended with a lifetime of 124crs. 115cr Regional 9cr, which is 124cr. For 2011, that was a humungous amount hence it got the HIT verdict I mean dabangg which made only 16cr more than it the previous year was called an ATBB, ready with 121cr was a BB and bodyguard with 140cr was BB. Ra.One with 124cr in 2011 can qualify as a HIT. It broke the 3 day weekend and 5 day weekend record of Bodyguard but crashed on Monday

  • Ra.one was among highest grossing movie of 2011. . It collected more than salmans blockbuster movie ready. . So no way we can say a high grossing movie a flop(when u say salmans blockbuster 123 cr ready. . Srk flop 125 cr. . Sounds funny ). . He jst thought on vfx in ra.one. . Bt’ srk will be careful in suqeul . . He already has best vfx india has. . He jst needs good story. . W8in’ for sequel. . Ra.one is a hit

  • I don’t agree with the article. I am not a trade expert, but I have knowledge about film business. In Hollywood, if a movie can’t recover its cost along with some profit then it is considerd “miss” which means a “flop”. Same is the case in Bollywood. RA. ONE has failed to recover its cost in Indian theatres, so it is a flop. Well in that case, most Akshay Kumar movies should be considered a hit because his movies mostly recover cost. Even if a single exhibitor loses his money then the product is a failure. Yeah, you may call RA. One a hit in overseas because it reasonably did well there, but not in India.

  • In case of Ra.One ….the story was so bad….and director fails to get that thngs in good manner…
    Nd i will promise u that srk will make ra.one 2 with budget of 200 cror…

  • It’s a rubbish article, along with your statement, you are saying RA One is complete failure then it says, average then exhibitors lots bit of money then RA One is Hit, nonsense. Basically, we the paying public and critics rejected the movie from day one. It’s a SRK hype and his power that dragged people in the theatre, he is hugely talented and we expect some magic like he produces in Darr, Bazigar, DDLJ and KKHH. To be honest, it’s been few years that he is misfiring but we still have a hangover from his earlier movies. SRK have another two years. Till today I still wonder how CE has become this huge Hit?

    Finally, RA One has recovered the investment but in term of public opinion and verdict it’s a FLOP.

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