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Laal Singh Chaddha Lifetime Box Office (Worldwide): Decoding the dynamics of Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor film
Decoding the box office collections of the Advait Chandan directed Laal Singh Chaddha fronted by Aamir Khan and Kareena Kapoor. Here is why this Forrest Gump remake is a disaster. Detailed analysis.
Aamir Khan returned to the big screen after 4 long years with the Advani Chandan directed Laal Singh Chaddha. It paired him with Kareena Kapoor again after 3 Idiots and Talaash. However, the return to the screen wasn’t fruitful as the film met with a disastrous fate at the box office. While multiple reasons were thrown in for the failure on social media, it didn’t strike the chord because the content was not upto the mark for the audiences. The fate of Laal Singh Chaddha was sealed when they launched the theatrical trailer, which met with an outright negative response.
The campaign post was also not up-to the mark, failing to create any anticipation among the audience. The movie has ended its run in the Hindi belts with a nett total of Rs 55 crore, resulting in a distributor share of Rs 25 crore. As far as overseas run is concerned, Laal Singh Chaddha is looking to clock $7.5 million (Rs 60 crore), which is again underperformance given the standards set by Aamir Khan. The overseas share of Laal Singh Chaddha is Rs 24 crore. The theatrical recovery for this much awaited Forrest Gump remake is Rs 50 crore for the distributors/producers, Viacom 18.
Talking of the non-theatrical recovery, Laal Singh Chaddha will see a digital premiere on Netflix and Voot. It has fetched Rs 80 crore from Netflix and valued at Rs 40 crore by Voot resulting in a recovery of Rs 120 crore. The satellite rights were sold to Sony in Rs 40 crore with music sold to T-Series for Rs 15 crore. With this the total recovery of Laal Singh Chaddha falls in the range of Rs 225 crore. On the budget front, Laal Singh Chaddha was made on a budget of Rs 200 crore, with another Rs 35 crore spent on print and publicity.
The team had tied up with Star Network for promotions through IPL, which resulted in marketing spends of approx. Rs 15 crore, with more spend on the marketing hygiene and print for release across the globe. This takes the total budget of Laal Singh Chaddha to Rs 235 crore, not inclusive of Aamir Khan’s acting fees. On the face of it, Laal Singh Chaddha has caused a loss of Rs 10 crore for Viacom 18, but if we take the opportunity cost of Aamir Khan’s acting fees into account, the losses extend to over Rs 100 crore. Taking a notional acting fee of Rs 100 crore into account for Aamir, the overall budget of Laal Singh Chaddha extends to Rs 335 crore.
In terms of absorbing the losses, Viacom 18 will entail a nominal loss of Rs 10 to 15 crore, whereas Aamir Khan will absorb the major chunk of losses by completely forgoing his acting fees. In a nutshell, Aamir Khan will absorb 80 to 85 percent of the loss amount as things stand today, though the gap might come down a little if the film releases in China towards the year end and does well there. Hefty amount was paid to acquire the rights of Forrest Gump, and the pandemic induced delay just added onto the budget with rising interest costs. Overall, this is the biggest disaster of Aamir Khan’s career, but that’s because the content was not upto the mark, the costs were high and the audience consumption pattern has altered post the pandemic.
But credit where due, very few do what Aamir Khan does - absorbing the losses of this proportion. Kudos for that. In fact, we also hear that Aamir has paid back the money to some exhibitors and distributors from his own pockets, to make sure, he is the only one who suffers the losses and takes the bait.
Expense:
Cost of Production: Rs 200 crore (Excluding Aamir Khan fees)
PnA: Rs 35 crore
Total: Rs 235 crore
Revenue:
Digital Rights: Rs 120 crore
Satellite Rights: Rs 40 crore
India Theatrical: Rs 25 crore
Overseas Theatrical: Rs 25 crore
Music Rights: Rs 15 crore
Total Revenue: Rs 225 crore
Loss: Rs 10 crore (+ Rs 100 crore for Aamir Khan fees)
Verdict: Disaster
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