ADAG buys 250 cinema houses in US

Times Of India ePaper:

Mumbai: Over the last one year, Reliance Entertainment (REL), a company promoted by the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG), has acquired 250 cinema houses in the US. The company spokespersons declined to comment. Sources, though, said that this string of acquisitions ties in with the company’s plan to promote films, it either produces or acquires, in the US and UK. As things stand right now, the company has plans to make 25-30 films, all of which will go into production this year. The cinemas that have been acquired in the US will be used to promote these films, sources said.

On an average, a reasonably large Hindi film is released on 250-300 screens outside India. As a thumb rule, this is dispersed across 100 screens in the US, 125-150 in the UK and the remaining in other parts of the world. Here, a lot depends on what areas a distributor reckons a movie will do well. Not just that, a distributor also gets a part of the revenues earned out of a movie. With 250 screens in the US alone, REL is hoping that it will now have greater control over how movies are distributed. Eventually, these acquisitions will also help the company shore up the revenues it earns from these markets.

For instance, on every Rs 100 that a movie earns, 70% comes from India, the US and UK bring in 20% and the rest of the world brings in 10%. This ratio may find itself altered in the future with a larger chunk coming in from the US and UK. Most of the cinemas acquired until now are frequented by patrons of Indian and Pakistani origin. Over time, though, REL has plans to acquire more mainstream cinema halls. The plan, sources said, is to eventually take a crack at Hollywood. What contours that plan take is unclear. There is some speculation that the company is talking to a few top actors and directors to get into production agreements. IPO rush hits online trading Mumbai:

The second day of the Reliance Power IPO saw a huge rush of retail investors committing funds to the mega issue. By late evening, 11.2 lakh retail applications had been received with the retail portion of the issue subscribed three times. The Future Capital IPO, too, which closed on Wednesday, was subscribed 131 times with the retail portion getting subscribed 45 times. The unprecedented rush of IPO applications hit the online trading systems of the broking arms of some major banks, with some slowdown reported in the primary market sections of websites. Market players said that some brokers were unable to access their depository accounts. They said there was a lack of planning. TNN