Rajinikanth-starrer Jailer rakes in the profits for Sun Pictures

As Rajinikanth-starrer super hit Tamil film Jailer nears the end of its theatrical run and is set for its OTT debut on Amazon Prime Video on September 7, the film’s producer Sun Pictures is laughing all the way to bank with a profit of at least an estimated Rs 150 crore. 

Produced by Kalanithi Maran-led regional entertainment behemoth Sun TV Networks’ film production and distribution arm Sun Pictures, the film has grossed more than Rs 600 crore in worldwide collections so far within 25 days of its run. It was released on August 10. 

Made on an estimated budget of Rs 200-220 crore, industry insiders peg the total revenue it would have fetched Sun Pictures at Rs 370-390 crore, including both pre-sale of all rights as well as the revenue overflow from the film’s higher collections.  

Typically, the film’s distributor and exhibitors have a fixed arrangement for revenue sharing such as 70:30 or 65:35, which is not dependent on the film’s box office performance. But the producer-distributor agreement comes with a clause usually. The distributor buys the rights from the producer for a fixed price called ‘Minium Guarantee’ (MG). If the film collects more than that MG amount, the clause allows the surplus to be shared equally between the producer and distributor. 

Exhibitors told Business Today that Jailer outperformed at the box office as expectations were muted for the film because the actor’s previous film Annatthe did not work at the box office. Similarly, director Nelson Dilipkumar’s previous film Beast, also produced by Sun Pictures, bombed at the box office.  

“By any yardstick, Jailer is one of the biggest Tamil hits of recent times. Sun Pictures got the perfect release date. There was no other competition and it had a free run in the south Indian theatres. It held up well against Gadar 2, which had a phenomenal run in the north. Everything from the content to marketing was right, and that helped it catch on,” said trade analyst Sreedhar Pillai, adding that Jailer did great business overseas as well. 

As Sun Pictures is the producer, parent firm Sun TV Network retains the satellite rights as well the audio rights for the film. It will be up to the producer how they show revenue from satellite and audio rights on their books. Although it has its own streaming platform Sun NXT, the firm has sold the digital rights to Amazon Prime Video for the Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi versions of the film. It is likely that the firm will still stream the film on its own platform Sun NXT as well, perhaps at a delayed date. 

Elated by the success of the film, Sun Pictures’ Kalanithi Maran recently gifted Rajinikanth a BMW 7 luxury car and a share in the film’s profits. The 72-year-old superstar already took home about 50 per cent of the film’s budget as his fee.