The Priyanka Chopra starrer, 7 Khoon Maaf, received lukewarm response in its opening weekend, grossing around Rs 15 crore in net collections over the weekend.
Siddharth Roy Kapur, chief executive officer, Motion Pictures — UTV, remains optimistic. “We should be sitting on tidy profits after the first weekend itself, as we have already de-risked almost half of the cost by booking revenues through satellite and music rights and also de-risked theatrical revenues through territory sales,” he said. The production cost was Rs 15 crore.
Another Rs 7 crore was spent on marketing and promotion. According to industry sources, UTV Motion Pictures have recovered around 60 per cent of the expenses incurred through sale of satellite and music rights.
While satellite rights have been acquired by Colors for Rs 9 crore, Sony took the music rights for another Rs 2 crore. Sale of territorial rights in Mumbai and some other places fetched Rs 9 crore.
UTV Motion Pictures has released 800 prints for screening the movie in the domestic market.
Film trade analyst Taran Adarsh felt the movie was unlikely to fare well in the coming weekend, since the cricket World Cup matches were likely to affect the theatrical business.
Adarsh informed, “The film has performed below expectations. It has not been appreciated by audiences. Given the number of screens in circulation, besides no major opposition to contend with, the film should’ve grossed at least Rs 15 crore in its first three days but the World Cup will have an adverse impact on business in the coming weekend.”
Exhibitors say the metros saw good business in the first weekend but the film failed to appeal to viewers in smaller centres.
