India’s big budget movies have a new business model: the IPL

Film promotions in India, across industries, have historically been treated as events. When K. Asif’s Mughal-e-Azam was released in 1960, it was reported that the film’s prints were delivered to cinemas by transporting them via a procession of elephants, accompanied by a band of musicians. This was designed as part of a promotional activity to match the film’s epic scale and grandeur. Tamil film Chandralekha, produced by S.S. Vasan, is considered by several film historians as one of the first Indian films to be promoted as a national spectacle, and not just a regional release.

While Indian cinema has always been big on spectacle, the system of filmmaking was built on theatrical runs. That has changed over the years as spectacle seems to have become the whole business model.

Some of the biggest Bollywood hits of 2023 and 2024 clocked over 60% of their revenues in either the opening weekend or the first week. Singham Again (2024) reportedly earned Rs 268 crore in its lifetime run, Rs 125 crore over the opening weekend, and Rs 187 crore over its first week in theatres. Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 (2024) earned Rs 284 crore over its lifetime run, but earned Rs 110 crore over the opening weekend itself and Rs 167 crore over its first week in cinemas. Animal (2023) earned over Rs 900 crore in its lifetime, over Rs 300 crore in its first weekend, and about Rs 140 crore in the first week.

A new model

The biggest release of 2025, Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar, collected Rs 100 crore in its first three days, over Rs 200 crore in its first week, and over Rs 140 crore in its second weekend, according to industry estimates. Its second instalment, Dhurandhar: The Revenge, collected over Rs 400 crore in the first four days, and crossed Rs 900 crore by the second weekend.

According to the collection figures, the first film opened like a traditional blockbuster and built momentum gradually over the weeks. The second one opened more like an event, earning crores in days, even before it had established that it could sustain itself. Even films that go on to have long runs now must first survive the pressure of a front-loaded opening.

Media reports suggest that around 30–35% of a film’s total lifetime box office is often decided in the first weekend itself. The fate of a film is disproportionately tied to the first few days, much like a high-stakes clash in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Film critics and industry observers have noted that films written off in the first three days rarely recover. This points to a broader pattern in which the theatrical business becomes a race for immediate impact rather than sustained performance. The shift reflects how releases are covered and consumed. Opening-day numbers, bookings, and weekend projections now shape a film’s fate almost in real time.

Dhurandhar managed to retain steam beyond its opening week. But it can be argued that this resilience was built after it had already ‘won’ its opening weekend. A modern blockbuster now begins like an IPL match, even if only a few go on to outlast the format.

Multiplex and OTT dynamics

This model has been further honed by India’s multiplex economics. PCR INOX operates over 1,700 screens across India. This enables multiplex chains to have disproportionate influence over both show timings and screen allocations. An outcome of the consolidation happening in this sector has been that big-ticket releases have begun occupying a large share of screens in their opening week, especially during the festive season, which sees a spike in footfall.

High real estate and operating costs associated with running multiplexes make this model favourable as they reward certainty. A single blockbuster with high occupancy across multiple screens is economically a safer bet than having several mid-performing films spread across several screens. This model creates a winner-takes-it-all ecosystem, which leaves several mid-budget, smaller films out of the theatrical circuit.  The theatrical business has now begun to resemble a high-intensity event economy rather than a slow-burning entertainment cycle.

Apart from multiplexes favouring low risk, the emergence of the over-the-top (OTT) platforms has also altered the risk economics of filmmaking. OTT and satellite rights are increasingly pre-sold during production, allowing studios to recover substantial costs even before a film reaches theatres. It has been reported that the upfront OTT deals are now serving as “seed funding” for production expenses. For instance, Kalki 2898 AD reportedly sold its digital rights to Netflix and Amazon Prime Video for a combined Rs 375 crore before release, recovering upfront over 60% of its reported budget. Haiwaan reportedly recovered nearly 70% of its costs through satellite, music, and streaming deals before hitting theatres. In a model that optimises recovering costs over theatrical releases, the business increasingly depends on spectacle, immediacy, and event-driven attention.

Another shift that further accelerates the eventisation of films is the advent of ‘pan-India’ films. Regional films like Salaar, RRR, and K.G.F: Chapter 2 are dubbed into several languages, positioning them as national spectacles built around scale and action. The unique position that the Hindi film industry had, till even the 2000s, as the national film, has been challenged by vernacular films. This new pan-India film is now an industrial model that serves spectacle across linguistic markets rather than rooted, dialogue-heavy storytelling.

This new model has reshaped the production process. Earlier, what used to be devices through which stories were told have become commercial strategies. Large-scale action, mythic heroism, elevated sound design, and IMAX-friendly visuals are now used to grab maximum opening-weekend business across territories simultaneously.

Films like K.G.F: Chapter 2 made over Rs 1,200 crore worldwide, while RRR became a global crossover success far beyond its Telugu-language origins. When the theatrical economy prioritises films that can provide immediate nationwide impact and create collective excitement across markets, slower and localised narrative-driven cinema gets deprioritised.

The result is a feedback loop. Every time a big-budget, spectacle-driven film rakes in huge money in opening weekends, producers invest even more heavily in event cinema.  If multiplexes allocate more screens to such releases, it conditions audiences to treat theatrical viewing as an event rather than as a habitual activity.

The IPL format

The comparison of films produced now to IPL may not be merely metaphorical. IPL creates value through intensity, rather than duration, by using concentrated bursts of attention to generate money. The Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) data has found that massive spikes in viewership happen in IPL broadcasts, within short seasonal windows. As per BARC data, over 253 million viewers watched the opening weekend of IPL 2025, spending a total of 2,770 crore minutes in viewership. This is a 22% increase compared to the same period last year.

This burst attracts advertisers who are willing to pay a premium for high-concentration attention. Disney Star reportedly charged upwards of Rs 18-19 lakh for a 10-second advertisement spot during marquee IPL matches in 2025, reflecting how value in the attention economy is increasingly tied to moments of peak engagement rather than sustained exposure.

The same logic extends to theatrical cinema. The goal has shifted from keeping a film running for weeks to dominating conversation, screens, and audience attention immediately upon release. The theatrical business model now rewards concentration over endurance, which explains why cinema is increasingly behaving less like a long season with high recall value and more like a high-stakes tournament.