Film exhibitors are hoping to see a surge in box office collections for Slumdog Millionaire on the back of 10 Oscar nominations, the announcement of which coincided with the paid preview of the film across theatres in India Thursday.
Meanwhile, T-Series, which has bought the music rights of the film in India, expect sales to jump 45 per cent after music director A R Rahman was nominated for three Oscars.
Most multiplexes now say they expect 70 per cent bookings over the long weekend since the $15-million film is being released both in English and Hindi. Earlier bookings were a moderate 50 per cent mark, despite the film winning four Golden Globe awards the week before.
Slumdog's initial lacklustre bookings were in sharp contrast to blockbusters from Bollywood like Akshay Kumar-starrer Chandni Chowk to China with nearly 100 per cent bookings for its paid previews last week.
Even Raaz, a mystery thriller produced by Mahesh Bhatt, which also released today, initially outperformed Slumdog with 70 per cent bookings.
But Devang Sampat, senior VP, Cinemax India, now predicts more success for Slumdog. "Because of all the hype Slumdog Millionaire seems to be picking up really fast. Especially since it is a long weekend it looks like it might go up to 70 per cent or more eventually," he said.
Although this advance booking record is not as good as for a Bollywood film, it is a decent performance for an offbeat film made by a foreign director set in Mumbai with an Indian cast. Box-office collections of recent blockbusters like Ghajini, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, and Singh is Kinng hit 90 to 100 per cent in the first weekend.
"Bookings would have been higher but for the fact that most people have already seen the English version of the movie on pirated DVDs," said Alok Tandon, COO, INOX Leisure Ltd, which runs multiplexes all over the country.
"The sheer number of people that are coming because of word-of-mouth publicity is phenomenal," added Joydeep Ghosh, general manager, marketing and sales, PVR Cinema.
Nearly 300 prints of Slumdog has been released in India by Fox Star Studio, the movie distribution and acquisition arm of Star India that is releasing it in the country.
But it is the sales from music CDs of Slumdog Millionaire that is making all the news. "We expect a 40 to 45 per cent increase in sales of the soundtrack. In terms of sales of iTunes and runs on FM radio station, the music is already a big hit," said Mukesh Desai, CEO, T-Series.
Music industry sources said T-Series expects to sell at least 100,000 music CDs of Slumdog Millionaire over the week.
Physical sales of music in the range of half a million to one million within a month of the release of any album makes it a commercial hit, sources said. The physical sales of recent A R Rahman sound tracks like Ghajini and Jaane Tu...have already crossed one million so far.
In the UK and US, the soundtrack of the film was among the top five in terms ofonline sales in the first couple of weeks of its release last year. "Even now, its ranked 48th in terms of its sales on amazon.com. This speaks volumes for A R Rahman's music. Whether it will sell in as large numbers as some of his other soundtracks remains to be seen," said a senior executive from a leading music company.
Music shop owners are elated. Mehmood Curmani - director - Rhythm House , Mumbai's most well known music shop, said: "Sales for the music CDs of Slumdog Millionaire have been unprecedented. We have sold about 300 CDs even before the film released. That is about 30 CDs a day. After the film releases I am expecting that this could go up to 50 CDs a day. "
