Often times, we read about our favourites movie online and come across unfamiliar terms like gross, nett, and share and wonder what they really are. If you did face this scenario, you’ve come to the right place. Here are some terms you need to know to understand the numbers of cinema better:

Gross = (total number of tickets sold) x (price of each ticket)

In simple terms, gross is the total money made by the sale of cinema tickets.

Nett = Gross – Taxes

Every item you buy is taxed, and tickets are no exception. Nett is the money left after the deduction of entertainment taxes on tickets.

Share = Nett – Rents

Renting theatres has been a common practice in the cinema business. Having said that, share is the money left after deducting the cost of rentals.

Theatrical Rights are the cost at which the producer sells the rights to run the film in theatres in an area, and distributors are the people who buy these rights. The cost of the theatrical rights varies from location to location.

For instance, let’s say Dil Raju had bought the Nizam Theatrical Rights of Ala Vaikuntapuralmuloo (2020) for 40 crore.

If a cinema theatre in Nizam wants to run the film, a fixed amount has to be paid to the distributor in Nizam, which is Dil Raju. Like Nizam, there are many territories across India where theatrical rights to a film are sold. The sum of the costs of theatrical rights of all territories is called the Theatrical Rights Valuation.

Say the theatrical rights of a film are valued at 100 crore. For the film to gain ‘Hit’ status, it should collect more than 100 crores of share.

In simple terms, when a film is called a hit, it means that everyone involved in the economics of the film has made profits.

Needless to say, higher the share the movie collects, the bigger hit it is. And the higher the share the movie fails to recover, the bigger flop it is. You should now understand the terms Flop, Average, Hit, Super Hit & Blockbuster.