When you pay Rs 100 for a movie ticket, how much of it actually reaches the producer who made the film? Not as much as you think. Shobu Yarlagadda, the producer of the Baahubali franchise, recently broke down the journey of a ticket from the theatre counter to the filmmaker’s bank account during a masterclass session with Student Tribe.

Start with the Rs 100 you pay at a multiplex. Rs 18 goes to GST — 18 per cent is charged on movie tickets priced above Rs 100. What remains is Rs 82, which trade analysts call the “gross collection”: the figure behind every gross box office number you read.

The multiplex and distributor cuts

Of that Rs 82, the multiplex takes its share. Chains like PVR and INOX work on a revenue-sharing model with the distributor, and in the first week the split is roughly 50-50 — though the exact figure varies between 50 and 55 per cent depending on the film and the deal. So the multiplex keeps approximately Rs 41, and the remaining Rs 41 goes to the distributor.

But the distributor is not the producer. The distributor is a middleman who buys or leases the rights to release the film in a specific territory, and charges a commission for it. This varies from 5 per cent to as high as 20 per cent, depending on whether the distributor put up advance money and the terms negotiated with the producer. Yarlagadda used an average of 10 per cent for his illustration.

The Rs 35 that counts

After the distributor’s 10 per cent commission is deducted from the Rs 41, the producer receives approximately Rs 35 to Rs 36. That is the “net box office” collection trade analysts report — the producer’s real earnings from every Rs 100 a moviegoer spends.

Yarlagadda also explained how the economics flip when a film or series is made directly for a streaming platform. Instead of the producer taking the financial risk and hoping to recover costs through ticket sales, the OTT platform funds the entire project upfront — development, pre-production and production. On top of costs, the producer gets roughly 10 to 15 per cent extra.

The advantage is minimal risk: as long as production finishes within the agreed budget, the producer is guaranteed their fee whether the show is watched by millions or a handful. The trade-off is the upside — if the show becomes a massive hit, that upside goes to the platform, not the producer.