How Bollywood is rigging box office with corporate bookings, self-buying

Indianexpress.com spoke to several industry insiders to piece together the menace of self-booking– where producers buy tickets of their films from their own pockets to show a big box office number, thereby creating a false perception of their movie and its hype. It is a practice which picked steam post pandemic, was at its peak last year, but is now embarrassingly being caught by trade watchers, who are saying the producers are so desperate today that they are leaving their footprints behind.

‘Four big films in 2024 indulged in self-buying’

According to multiple industry insiders Indianexpress.com spoke to, at least four big Hindi films this year went the self-buying way, where the collections reflected the “inorganic” money put in by the numbers. A big film, which eventually bombed at the box office, attempted to boost its advance booking ticket sales to reach a milestone and then continued the trend to boost its opening day collections. The efforts went to waste, as the movie was dead on arrival, but the feeding continued for a few more days, before it all crashed.

A mid-level star headlined a film this year, which had its first day collections boosted with self-buying. But the makers stopped it after the opening as they realised no amount of box office feeding was going to turn things around. The film was a disaster. Another film, an inspiring drama, was called out on social media for indulging in self-buying. The makers pumped in an estimated Rs 8 crore to give their film a respectable push, when it was clear from the advance booking that it is heading for a shocking start.

“The trend of self-buying is very harmful, and it will damage the industry,” veteran exhibitor and distributor Raj Bansal told Indianexpress.com. “This used to happen even earlier but had eventually stopped. But in the last three years, it has come back strongly. The trade doesn’t appreciate this at all, it is unhealthy for everyone involved,” Bansal fumed.

Corporate booking vs self-buying

Though “organic collections” was a box office keyword for Bollywood last year, trade voices say there is a difference between actual “corporate booking” as it used to happen previously and “self-buying”, even if both lead to the same end goal: increase a film’s box office figure. A trade source broke down the post-pandemic process of corporate booking in films and said it begins with an understanding between the actor headlining the movie, its producers and the brands.

“The stars ask the corporate brands they are associated with, to do bulk booking for them for their latest film. That expense will be balanced in their fee. So, if a brand buys tickets worth Rs 10 lakhs, that amount will be deducted from what the star gets as his fee. The company will buy those tickets and then distribute it to either their staff for free or as a contest prize to consumers.

“Then their final expenditure document is sent to the actors and producers in question. So if a star has five brands, he will ask all five of them to do it for him. So that is different from self-booking, which is a practice where you pump in money from your own pocket to spike your collections, with no brands involved.”

Self-buying = Empty theatres

The trade source shared when makers take the route of actual “corporate booking”, there is some guarantee that if 1000 tickets are distributed to people, at least 500 will turn up in cinemas. This ensures that the seats shown as “booked” online, actually have people sitting on them, even if it is on a ticket not paid by them. This doesn’t necessarily work in the case of self-buying, where one is mindlessly booking and blocking seats– with no process for all the tickets to reach the audience.

“When producers and actors realise that they won’t get a huge boost from corporate booking and when they can’t just randomly self-buy and have no one turn up for the shows, they check with educational institutions. You buy tickets yourself, but give it to schools and colleges, to make it look authentic. It’s the makers’ money, but when it results in people or kids showing up, the picture it paints is that it is organic. But it isn’t,” the source added.

Bollywood makers are resorting to self-buying tickets.

How ‘corporate bookings’ happened for Shah Rukh, Salman, Aamir in the past

As much as it is being spoken about today, the culture of corporate bookings has been ongoing for “decades now,” a trade voice shared. It was always understood that bigger the star, bigger the brand interest, which will trickle into ticket sales as well. Box Office India, the trade magazine Hindi film industry swears by, has in multiple instances in the past mentioned corporate-aided bookings in a matter-of-fact manner.

In an article dated December 18, 2014, Box Office India noted how the Aamir Khan starrer PK had an “excellent advance” at the major metros with “block bookings by corporate forming a huge proportion of the bookings.” In another dated June 15, 2018, where Salman Khan-led Race 3’s fantastic advance booking numbers were reported, the website wrote, “Top three advances as far as Hindi films go belong to Salman Khan, but Race 3 should have collected more than it has pre-release. Bahubali – The Conclusion leads by a margin and it will be down to Thugs Of Hindustan and Zero to challenge that. Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan get far higher corporate / block booking than Salman Khan which can help the major multiplex advance towards the level of Baahubali – The Conclusion.”

But there is a difference in how this is playing out today. A trade source shared that back in the day, corporates would actually book tickets for films-without the stars asking them to do so– for their employees, especially for movies of Shah Rukh and Aamir as they would be more palatable for the “corporate structure of audience”.

“It is also because their films released during Christmas, which is considered a more elite center holiday period. Now what has happened is that there is self-buying in the guise of corporate booking. So, when a film releases today, the numbers are a reflection of corporate booking as well as self-buying, which is a big issue.”

Another trade source explained, “What has changed today is that, till last decade, this corporate booking wouldn’t use to happen till the first three days. The corporate booking would kick in from Monday to stablise a film after the opening weekend and then continue slowly every week. Also, the said amount a corporate would pump in would be way lesser than what is being done today, sometimes to the tune of Rs 80 cr. Today, when a producer knows their film hasn’t turned out well or is certain that due to some circumstances, the opening will be poor, they activate corporate booking or do self-buying.”

In Dec 2023, two films pumped in Rs 70 cr to create BO records

Not all poor films or those struggling at the box office have been accused of boosting their collections though. Last year, a couple of big entertainers which smashed box office also came under scanner from trade for “inorganic” collections. “In some cases, the makers wanted to break records of other films, and create new ones, so a last push of sorts was given to just reach that milestone. But this normally happens with films where a certain face-saving is needed,” trade shared.

Self-buying probably reached its glaring peak in December last year, when two films of diverse genres tried to outsmart each other, pumping in an estimated Rs 70 cr in “inorganic” collections to emerge as the real winner. According to insiders, while one maker bought tickets for the film’s opening and then the following week to keep it afloat, the other created altogether new shows, which it would book fully, and add the ticket revenue to its box office. So, ticketing platforms flashed “houseful” for the said shows, while it had no real audience watching the film.

This bizarre move was reported even by Box of Office India, which wrote in its annual report, “They did not touch the actual box office at all and just created innumerable number of extra shows where tickets were not even available to the public, but exhibitors got the money for these shows… This way, not one actual consumer was lost either. No doubt very creative but what is the reason to drown such a large sum of money.”

How to catch a case of self-buying

A trade source shared images of ticket bookings of a film this year, accused of self-buying. A strange pattern emerged. “The pattern to catch this is simple: When you book a ticket through an online ticketing platform, the app shows you a visual reference of the auditorium, of all the rows and seats. The makers are getting caught because in all these instances, front row seats were being bought, the last row seats were empty.

“Usually, when advance booking opens, the last rows will start selling out first and not the front rows! The pattern showed some shows to be randomly fast filling with bulk buying. So, there were shows where a lot of seats were full, but its immediate next show, or its previous show, had empty or just one-two tickets sold. So who is the industry fooling? They know it is inorganic.”

“See, you can’t make a flop film hit. It is quite clear now that a trend like this has no future,” Bansal shared. “This only benefits actors, because then they claim that they give a guaranteed, big opening, and that amps up their brand value and helps them bargain better star fee for their next film. This ecosystem is just not sustainable,” Bansal added.

Self-buying to jack up film’s OTT price

Makers indulging in self-buying are doing so to fetch lucrative OTT deals. If a film manages to get a big box office number, it helps the makers to get a better streaming deal. It also helps the actors, who want to show their might at the box office, which in turn determines their brand value and helps them quote a higher fee for their next. Putting money to buy tickets from their own pockets is also see as a “marketing expense”.

Post pandemic, as press tours, multi city visits and outdoor activities slowed down, the pre-release marketing expense also altered, and then found a way to be channeled straight into box office. The noise of first day collections added to the hype of a film, so self-buying essentially became a marketing tool, which would build perception of a movie–at least for the weekend. But today, it is falling apart.

“This trend is perhaps at its last leg. There is no more bluffing that’s possible, as people are catching it. It won’t help actors to increase their price, nor get streaming platforms to buy the films at a higher price. The party will soon be over,” the source added.