At the moment, Overseas rights are the most discussed ones in Tollywood owing to the high amounts involved. Unlike local distributors who could very well manage the film distribution, USA distribution is little tricky and risky as well. But still, our producers are able to milk huge numbers, thanks to star power.
Recently both Mahesh Babu’s Spyder and Jr NTR’s Jai Lava Kusa didn’t found any buyers in this region owing to the high prices they are quoting. Finally, Sypder got sold out for a staggering 15+ crores for both Telugu and Tamil overseas rights though the makers demanded 21 crores initially. At the same time, Jr NTR’s Jai Lava Kusa demanded 18 crores initially but got settled with 10.1+ crores with no buyer coming forward to pick the movie.
If these two films score thunderous hits at the box office, then recovering this amount is a good possibility though distributors will not be eating huge profits. What if they failed to do so? A flop like Brahmotsavam collected only 1.2 million and blockbuster Janata Garage neared 1.7 million gross collections from USA box office. But now, to give their investment back, Mahesh Babu’s Spyder should collect 5+ million gross and Jai Lava Kusa should collect close to 3 million. So, how is the box office going to be?
Jr NTR’s triple action could be a show stealer in Jai Lava Kusa but sticking to just mass elements would prove fatal. At the same time Mahesh’s class looks in the role of a spy sounds interesting, but too much intelligence sans emotional content will ruin the show of Sypder. Any slight mismatch in expectations would make distributors lose millions in USA market. Hope that won’t happen!!
