Who lost Spielberg, UTV cracks US Top 20 and Snoop goes Bollywood

An assortment of news with an Indian flavour in the last few days.

It is talked about as if the ink is dry on the paper, but this article from the New York Times gives a bit more context to the Ambani-Spielberg/Reliance-Dreamworks deal under negotiation, particularly the financial climate in which an Indian conglomerate trumped Hollywood studios and traditional investment banks to the world's most commercially successful director:

But there was still an element of shock [following the announcement of the Reliance negotiations]: Hollywood could not come up with a rich enough deal for Mr. Spielberg, the most bankable director in the business and a “national treasure”? His last movie alone, “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” has sold $743 million in tickets and is still playing in theaters around the world.

For that matter, there wasn’t anybody on Wall Street willing to write a blank check for the guy with “Jaws” and “Jurassic Park” on his résumé?

The pending deal with Reliance underscores some realities about Mr. Spielberg — mainly that he has become so expensive that few public companies can afford him. Mr. Spielberg’s standard deal, on par with other blue-chip talent, is 20 percent of a movie’s gross from the first ticket sold, although he agreed to a somewhat less aggressive paycheck on the latest “Indiana Jones” installment to offset its high budget.

And:

Hollywood’s seeming inability to close a deal with Mr. Spielberg highlights the shift toward a more corporate, buttoned-down movie business. Just a few years ago, bragging rights often drove business decisions. Steven Spielberg is available? Back up the money truck. We want that jewel in our crown no matter what the cost. And studio bosses could justify such ego-driven loss leaders: In the entertainment business, talent draws talent.

And:

As for Wall Street, the firm belief in Hollywood is that the arrival of Reliance marks the end of the private equity and hedge fund boom that has propped up the industry. With the capital markets in turmoil, terms have tightened substantially for movie deals. Investors are demanding faster payback schedules, better guarantees and even a say in how movies are made and marketed.

So out with the Germans and in with the Indians, confirming once again that Hollywood is colour blind when it comes to foreign investment, as long as it is dollar-green.

Elsewhere follow Indian company UTV has just cracked the Top 20 US distributors list on the strength of several Bollywood hits. From THR.com:

UTV Motion Pictures said Monday that it earned $5.48 million from ticket sales in North America in the first half of the year, becoming the first foreign-language distributor to rise into the ranks of the top 20 distributors in the territory. North America's growing South Asian population flocked to see such UTV releases as the historical epic "Jodhaa Akbar," which earned $3.44 million in ticket sales; action-thriller "Race," which earned $1.37 million; and recent musical release "Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na," which has earned $539,857 so far.

Not bad, but I am sure that the likes of UTV and Eros can and will climb even higher than this, possibly all the way up to the Top 10.

An unlikely convert to all things Bollywood is bad dog rapper Snoop Doggy Dog. But soon he will be seen duetting on the big screen with Bollywood's comedy star du jour Akshay Kumar. Sayz the Snoopster himself in IHT.com:

"I really dig how much music is infused with the movies" in Bollywood, Snoop Dogg said in an e-mailed response to questions. "Lots of hip-hop tracks sample Indian music, and a lot of their music sounds like it was influenced by hip-hop," he said. "We're putting together something real big" in India, that will include collaborations, live shows and "more movies with some of my Bollywood homies."

"I'm coming to take over Bollywood," Snoop Dogg promised during the video shoot. "I've never been able to come over there and do shows for you all, but now I'm going to come and do shows," he said in a clip that the video's promoters put on YouTube. "This is just the beginning."

I for one can't wait.

Getting digital wrong in Mumbai from a distance

Never let facts get in the way of a good story, or better, of a daring piece of analysis. That is the only conclusion I can draw from the following breathless pronouncement by my colleague Nick Dagger over at Digital Cinema Report:

July 15, 2008 | Issue #131

A recent press release from Digital Projection International highlighted the news that the company is supplying the projectors for all of the 1,000 digital screens in UFO Moviez’s digital cinema network in Mumbai, India. While that is admittedly a significant announcement for DPI, I think it represents an even more significant development for the global digital cinema marketplace. My reasoning? The projectors are all 720P HD, which means that – for now, and by choice – the largest digital theatre chain in the largest city in the world will not be showing first run Hollywood movies digitally.

Interesting if it was true, but it is not. Simple research would have thrown up two glaring errors in this claim. The first is that Mumbai is the largest city on earth. It is not. From Wikipedia:

It is not the biggest, it just feels like the most crowded.

Secondly, there are not 1,000 UFO screens using DPI projectors in Mumbai. There aren't even 1,000 digital screens by any and all operators combined. In fact, there aren't 1,000 cinema screens in Mumbai full stop.

A quick visit to UFO Moviez's website would have confirmed it, as they helpfully provide a list of all their screens everywhere in India by state:


According to this list Maharastra (the state in which Mumbai is located) had a total of 257 screens installed. Of these I counted 46 screens in Mumbai (if we include Navi Mumbai). So well short of the 1,000 claimed.

You do not need to live in Mumbai to know this - an Internet connection and a healthy dose of skepticism about outlandish digital claims is all that is required. But he is right that UFO will not be showing Hollywood films on the e-cinema screens. However, a little bird tells me that they have a surprise in store.

Bollywood's BO takings slump in 1st half of 2008

Half way through the box office year in Bollywood the industry is feeling distinctly glum at the lack of a significant number of hits so far. Just three to four films have genuinely done gang buster business, if THR.com is the be believed:

Bollywood lost about $37.5 million in the first half of 2008, as most films released here sold fewer tickets than expected, a leading business daily reported here Monday.

A survey published by the Economic Times of India also showed ticket receipts of only $75 million for the 47 Hindi-language films released from January through June, well below industry expectations.

Bollywood, the most famous segment of India's vast movie industry, does not have an independent source for boxoffice data.

"It's been a bad year (in that) major films have just tanked," film critic and industry analyst Rajeev Masand told The Hollywood Reporter.

The few successes in the first half of the year included UTV's historical epic "Jodhaa Akbar," which collected $30 million worldwide on the way to recovering its $10 million budget; the action-packed "Race" from the Abbas-Mastan directing duo; and "Jannat" (Heaven), Kunal Deshmukh's look at illegal betting in cricket.

The second half of the year got off to a so-so start, with the Aamir Khan Productions/PVR film Jaane Tu... doing well, while the Adlabs-backed Love Story 2050 did less well.

Unlike Hollywood, which has a box office summer stretching from May until Labour Day, the Indian box office summer is usually in May before the monsoon, though the IPL cricket stole away the viewers this year and will have a dampening effect next year. Hopes are instead high for Diwali and the releases tied to the other Indian national and religious holidays.

Despite this the investment in Indian films continues to grow, Hollywood studios are stepping up their local productions, more and more multiplexes are being opened and the expectations are for the industry as a whole to continue growing.

Interestingly websites that host pirated Bollywood content that is downloaded by NRIs (non-resident Indians) in UK, US and even Finland (!) are doing terrific business according to this article. For Bollywood, digital cinema and legit digital overseas distribution cannot come soon enough to help fill the coffers.

Reliance-Spielberg discussions "going well"

I have just returned to Mumbai - which is looking particularly lush and green after several weeks of rain - now that I have secured a permanent work visa. Lots of things have been going on while I attended SAWA and Cinema Expo, but over in the States the discussions to enable Spielberg to set up DreamWorks as a stand-alone studio with Reliance ADAG's support are apparently going well. From THR.com, which leads both the international and domestic daily with the news:

Representatives of Steven Spielberg and the Indian conglomerate Reliance continue to talk daily about terms of a $1.5 billion proposal to fund a privately owned DreamWorks that would produce more than 30 films over the next five years.

Reliance executives are expected to hold sit-down talks with Spielberg reps soon in New York or Los Angeles, though things are going so well they might hold off flying in until a meeting to close the deal later this summer. The business plan being discussed would see Spielberg and top DreamWorks execs create a new company financed with about $550 million in equity funding by Reliance, a senior debt facility and possible additional equity from whichever studio is chosen as a theatrical distributor.

"Things are going well, and God willing we'll get there," said Schuyler Moore, a Strook & Strook & Lavan attorney representing Reliance in the DreamWorks talks.

God willing, indeed. Who knows, perhaps Mr Spielberg will even be persuaded to come out to India at some point, though as you can see from the article above the deal would be signed in Hollywood.