AMC – Carmike Merger: Tough Days Ahead For Overseas Stars?

With the changing (and expanding) market dynamics in Overseas, are the coming days going to be tough for stars depending on the US box office and for small films heavily dependent on overseas?

[m9ad]

The latest development in the US where AMC is taking over Carmike is the reason for this trouble. The AMC would be handling the box office of Indian films from January 2017. It might not be a big problem for Hindi movies as they aren’t oversold to the distributors. Neither is audience charged exorbitantly for the Hindi movies.

The problem is with Telugu films, especially biggies who operate on a whole new level with unbelievable prices. With the AMC taking over, the terms would be stricter between the exhibitor and distributor. There would be a big change in percentages. It means the actual share that Telugu distributors get would be less even though the gross remains the same. This was one of the biggest reasons why Telugu films had fewer shows in AMC Theaters in the US.

For example, a film that grosses $ 1.5M currently yields a share of approximately 6.5 Cr. Post the takeover that share could be in 4Cr to 4.5 Cr range. The direct impact would on the selling prices of the biggies. Also, the overall worldwide number would be reduced. It will be interesting to see how the Sankranthi releases fare under this new system if it comes into effect from January 2017.