Question: In a recent press conference producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra said he has tied up with ‘Rentrak’ to monitor the box office collections of PK. Since this is something new for viewers, could you explain the functioning of Rentrak and why it is more accurate? – Gaurav
Answer: Rentrak is a reputed source that tracks box office collections from different countries around the world. They have just entered India and will be starting off by announcing the figures of ‘PK’. While it’s easy to track collections in countries like US, UK, New Zealand, Australia etc, where everything is computerised, a country like India, with thousands of single-screens and fixed rentals where tickets are still sold on printed papers, it would be impossibly difficult to track for Rentrak.
The producers of the film don’t really need an outside company to track their figures, they would get exact collections of their films even otherwise. We think, the tie-up is a win-win situation for both Rentrak and the makers of PK, but wouldn’t do much to improve the overall situation as far as the confusion around box office numbers is concerned. Rentrak will give credibility to the box office figures of PK and they would get huge publicity in India.
But will they really be able to be give out 100% accurate figures, that too on a daily basis? We don’t think so!
Until recently, we had a tie-up with Rentrak for overseas collections. Before subscribing to their service, we had a quick discussion with them about how they track figures. Below is an excerpt from their email
To give a quick overview of the kind of data we provide ,we have 2 sources of data. Flash & SRG.
Flash data is the one collected from Theatres individually on a daily basis. From that Flash data, we create all types of reports, aggregated (Top level. i.e- Ranking by movies) and not aggregated ( Theatre level.i.e- Ranking by theaters)
SRG ( Studio Reported Grosses) is the official data reported by the distributors. This data is collected once a week. It has Weekend, Week and Cumulative data, but you can not break it down by days.
So, to summarize, Flash has Theatre level and Top level, and SRG only has Top level. Top level Flash and SRG can by subscribed by any client.
At this time , we are tracking Box-office revenues from 36 territories. These include 4 in Latin America, 11 in Central America, 9 in Europe and 10 in Asia Pacific, besides North America and Canada. Few more territories are in the pipeline. We are setting up operations in India at this time and should be able to provide Indian data too in the near future.
Assuming that they apply the same strategy for tracking collections in India, Rentrak would collect sample figures from theatres and also official data from distributors / producers. However, the figures are collected once a week, and the Indian market demands figures released on a daily basis.
Thanks a lot indicine for your detailed response. Even I had the same feeling. The market of India is too difficult to track with 100% accuracy that too on a daily basis.
It would be great if there is a single box office site which gives accurate figures regarding collection and there is no manipulation by producers
yes India is a difficult market. However, Rentrak is a reputed name and can be used to compare collections of 2 different films…..remember their methodology would remain the same, so is a consistent tool of comparison…..
exact figures ofcourse are difficult unless we achieve 100% digitization….
Thanks for the informative post.
the fact aamir,vidhu has asked rentak to monitor pk collections proves that they don’t believe in boi figures and verdicts.hope after reading this article boi fans wil stop following that useless website
Dont see why it is difficult to gather Indian data. After all even if paper tickets are sold, at the end of the day, people can still report how many tickets were sold
@Kelpha, how would Rentrak ensure that the reported collections are accurate?
Wow this is something called “news”. Thanks indicine.
We have to trust on producers as there is only 8 to 10% variation in figures and that what is happened only with big grossers like aik tha tiger ce dhoom 3 and hny as all these movies collects huge and variation is understandable..if media have a guts to take clear stance on the fudging collections of k3 and bang bang which have a diff of 40 and 30% respectively so then this nonsense will over plz indicine rigth an article about fudging collection with roshans specific so that will rest the debate
@Sambuddha If you won’t follow BOI,then don’t force your opinion on others.It is independent and they track collections with their own sources
something like this should happen because different sites show their own different collections but film does just one collection at the Box Office that’s why recent past films suffered a lot.
due to this, very low sites like BOXOFFICEINDIA.COM will completely stop their site or give the nearly accurate collections which will about a lakh difference that is more sufficient than a crore difference.
good wishes to pk and pk team for their smart move because due to this pk will more crore or more accurate collection at BO.
Thanks a lot for such kind move for our HINDI FILM INDUSTRY.
@sky this great gentleman who is Mr perfect aamir fan said that aamir has huge stardom. by reading this statement I can’t stop my laugh. the reality is aamir films works because of the Merritt of the film not because of aamir khan. if aamir khan have done Hny or kick with same script it even won’t cross 100crs. this is the fact iam not a hater of ammir but saying the truth. and sky told that he is a actor who gives 50crs in multiplex ara. let me remind you RDB didn’t touched 50crs only fanna did 50crs. at that time only Srk with Don with clash with salmon+akki janemann and that time top actress pretty zinta Srk gave 50crs that is true stardom. and in that same year srks kank in overseas it made more then domestic collection of fanna. now its dharma film that’s why it did. if we remove Srk in that film it will be huge disaster. this is stardom. and about overseas Srk gave 23millon on non holiday and only in single phase release tell ammir to release his film on non holiday apart frm Christmas and earn at least half of mnik then we can say aamir is competitor for Srk in overseas. aamir doesn’t have any stardom. Akshay and ajay are way ahead of a amir in terms of fan following and stardom
@salman If Aamir had done HNY it would have crossed 250 crores in India and at least $20 million overseas. If SRK had done Dhoom 3 it would do 150 crore max in India and 20 million overseas max. Remember Srk’s Don 2 did just 105 crore inspite of releasing on same date.
@indicine
nice article
great for Hrithik’s films which always pull down by boi.
With this boi will get his perfect slap to pull down hrithik or all superstars.
to those who are happy for about 10% difference .
I don’t think that they need to be happy because even 10-12 crore difference not sufficient to consider as most accurate collection because a thousand or a lakh difference is more sufficient than a crore difference but here the difference is in crores. how a crore difference film can consider as not inflated films ?
Trust is that every superstars films always pull down by boi but hrithik films pull down by boi more than others but no one understand that specially others superstar’s fans because they got a clue to put down hrithik too.
I remember aamir khan saying few days back that he follows rentrak for boxoffice data and he wished that it begins its service in india too.. He told rentrak reports 100% accurate data.. Lets see if it brings any change to the bollywood boxoffice.. By the way @indicine, is rentrak a bigger and more popular boxoffice site than boxofficemojo for hollywood movies?
@Wap4, boxofficemojo get their figures from Rentrak for some countries. Rentrak is not a box office website, they sell their figures to content based websites. Any reputed site can subscribe to their costly subscriptions :)
I think rentrak could have started with a smaller film here,tracking down a big widely released film like PK at first might prove difficult for them…
@Legend don2 did less collection because of huge negativity surrounded by his last film Raone. and don2 did 115 crs from all regions and it is not a universal film. but still it earned more then talash which is also a Christmas release. and even struggled to touch 100crs.
if aamir have done Hny with so much of negativity surrounding on his maker it won’t even cross 100crs in domestic and 10million in overseas. if Srk have done D3 then 300crs minimum in domestic and in overseas sky is the limit.
He is trying to create a hype for the film
Pk might be a good film
But it doesn’t have a good buzz
130-140crs
@legend lets se will pk cross 25cr 1st day or 156cr in lifetime or not
I think this is the plan of vidhu/amir to manipulate bo figure as amir is worrying about is his upcoming release talash2 sorry pp.
@indicine, thanks for responding my query..
@salman Talaash was a Christmas release? lol It was release on 2 weeks before Khiladi 786. That too before diwali.
And giving excuses about negativity, even Dhoom 3 got negative reviews. SRK in Dhoom 3 wont cross even 150 crore.
@Salman keep dreaming. stop acting like a small child. you are nothing but a moronic fan. no excuses. fact is don 2 under performed and couldn’t break 3 years old ghajini’s record. big shame for the so called king. and when that man broke 3 idiots record after four long years, aamir didn’t take 4 months to smash it like a hell and leave it far behind. I bet you if sarooookh was in talaash, then it would have been bigger flop than billu something. sarooookh is playing safe by doing only mass movies which appeal to masses, because he is scared that if he experiments like aamir, than the movie will be sure shot flop. I dont even need to give any example because it’s in front of you: Ashoka and Swadesh. even chak de was a hit by most, and not super hit or block buster. while taare zameen par which was an off beat movie was blockbuster. so keep your tiny brain aside, because to understand aamir’s stardom is not a cup of tea for moronic blind fans like you. If aamir was in HNY or kick then it would have surely crossed 300 crores, but because of salman and srk poor Kick and poor HNY it couldn’t come anywhere close to dhoom 3. but i bet you if sarookh was in dhoom 3, it would have barely crossed 250 crores by most.
@salman-idiot aamir hater,rdb did 51.5cr and fanaa did 52 plus.And talaash wasn’t a christmas release.Don’t know why indicine allows such moronic comments
@Salman : According to you Talaash was a Christmas release. Hats off to your IQ !!!!!! Lol.
For some morons, Taalash was released on November 30th 2012. Aamir could have released it on Christmas but he gave the holiday release to Salman for Dabangg2 moreover Aamir did not promote Taalash as commercial movie unlike 3 Idiots or D3. He gave the audience what he promised n did not cheat them like HNY !!!!!!!!!!!
so sad! this is a very intuitive and critical means of looking forward for a homogeneous data/statistic source for box office collections….while some fans have already started “IF IF IF ….RA 1 or DHOOM 3 had this or had that…..???”
what is past is past!!! why rejuvinating healed/sealed wounds back esp @ this topic/post!!!!
thanks indicine for d enlightenment…. fingers crossed and let’s see d outcome 1st…
Will Deepika Padukone still be Bollywood’s number 1 actress if she does films like Finding Fanny and Piku which are less commercially viable whereas Katrina Kaif is doing films like Bang Bang and Jagga Jasoos which are more commercial?
Fact is Aamir is the best we have hate it or like it..