MUMBAI: Film distribution and exhibition is a science and an art. Indian cinema distributors, exhibitors and producers now have a tool to help them finetune this further, courtesy media research and consulting firm Ormax Media.
Called Cinematix, the tool allows those involved in a film‘s release to gauge audience awareness and interest levels in watching it. And it is currently being tested in the three cities of Mumbai, New Delhi and Ahmedabad.
In its expansion plans, the tool will be introduced in cities like Lucknow, Kolkata and Hyderabad in the next three months.
Basically, six weeks before a film is released or the week when the promos go on air, Ormax executives call audiences to generate feedback, points out Ormax Media co-founder & CEO Shailesh Kapoor.
Every Monday, subscribers (producers, distributors, advertisers) of Cinematix then get a detailed report with age, gender, city and sector-wise analysis, for all the films releasing in the corresponding period.
"By this, they will come to know whether a film has been marketed well or needs to further finetune their marketing, media planning and promotion strategies," points out Kapoor.
Kapoor says that Hollywood studios as a norm track the variables of pre-release awareness and intention to watch amongst audiences. "Once we have a body of data in place over a few weeks, Cinematix will allow producers to predict their opening weekend collections as well," he adds.
All this would involve a lot of money. Where will Omax Media recover the money from? "We have two kinds of packages for producers or production houses. One is an annual charge, where we do the tracking of all their films releasing during the year while the second is on a film basis," Kapoor observes.
Cinematix has been put into operation from last week when YRF‘s Badmaash Company was released. Side-by-side tracking of Rakesh Roshan‘s Kites was also being done. "By Monday, we got the information that Kites was the front runner in terms of popularity followed by Badmaash Company," reveals Kapoor.
