Box office manipulation?????

This is an interesting article I found. I dunno if it's true or not but I thought it was an interesting article to share with you all

If anyone wants to know whether the movie is doing well or not then one has to simply observe whether the producers/ stars of the movie are promoting their movies diligently even after the movie is into the second week after its release. It’s nauseating to see the producer / actor Shahrukh Khan still promoting OSO on TV shows, cricket stadiums, etc. This is the sign of desperation on the part of SRK whose film is not doing so well in the second week. If, according to SRK and trade experts, the movie has grossed record collection and are claiming that the masses have liked the movie, then why are they still promoting the movie so excessively? This clearly points out that after the
initial hype and great opening, the BO collections have been dropping at alarming length and just to prop up the movie SRK is going full throttle to hype his movie. But audience is not a fool anymore.

SRK and trade experts are definitely wrong in calling OSO as a super hit by giving wrong BO information to the general public. For eg. When Dhoom and Krishh were released last year with around 1000 prints they had near 100 percent attendance for the first 3 / 4 days and they had the luxury of having 14 / 16 shows daily in multiplexes and the ticket prices were even hiked. In comparison, OSO was also released with around 1000 prints and had 90 percent attendance during the first three days but it only had 8 shows in multiplexes and there was no price hike in tickets. So logically, OSO should not be grossing more than Krissh and Dhoom during this period but the trade experts continue to claim that OSO has done record business. There have been many incidences in Mumbai where the boards showed Houseful for OSO but the theatres were half empty. For the movie that has the budget of 60 (including publicity expenses) it has to gross more than 120 crores to be called a hit. OSO is not even close to the halfway mark and still it has been declared a blockbuster. A movie with no repeat value, how in the world can OSO make 40 crores in just one week. This is hogwash.

Today, big filmmakers and stars like Yash Chopra, Karan Johar, SRK, etc are certainly fooling and looting the general public by hyping their movies through media, then releasing the movie in thousand prints and forcing the multiplexes to hike ticket prices. This way they get tremendous returns in spite of delivering trash movies. It is disgusting see media and news channels falling prey to such BO manipulations. But even the Indian audience is to be blamed partly. In future they should discard the substandard movies of big filmmakers in the first week itself so that these filmmakers don't earn huge amount and spend this money to make another trash movie. The manipulations of Box office is done because the reputation of big filmmakers and stars is at stake and their ego would get hurt if the movie is declared as a flop. The exaggerated BO figures is being resorted to due to the rivalry going on between big filmmakers and big distribution companies. Since many of these production and distribution companies are listed on
stock exchange the need for exaggerating BO figures has become more imperative for them.

The Indian Government must implement - and not just pass – a strict law on releasing made-up trade figures through media. Both the trade sources and the media should be held accountable for the figures they publish. This should be given high priority as movie-making is increasingly getting corporatised with movie companies getting funds from bank are getting registered at stock exchanges. If this isn’t done soon, the investors will lose confidence and that’ll badly impact the stock market in the long run. Therefore the I&B minister and the Tax authorities have to step in to see that the BO figures quoted in media are authentic and audited because the money of common man is invested in these companies. Finally, I would like to tell the big producers and distributors that no matter what figures they give in newspapers and other medium, we the audience is not going to believe any of those figures. Don’t underestimate our intelligence.