Lights, Camera, Scoop: 'War 2' Profit-Loss Ratio; 'Rowdy Rathore' and 'Badlapur' Sequels In The Making

It's lights out for Hrithik Roshan and JR NTR-led War 2, which has grossed a little over ₹300 crore globally in the first week. The heavy-budgeted film (reported to be around ₹400-450 crore) will end its run way below Yash Raj Films' romantic blockbuster Saiyaara, which collected over ₹500 crore worldwide.

But the collapse of War 2, the sixth instalment in the spy universe, came with some lessons, reminding a section of the Internet that there is a huge difference between a film being a colossal flop theatrically and still not going into heavy losses (or putting up a good total at the box-office, but not enough profits on the table due to high budgets).

Several trade sources THR India spoke to said that despite the high costs of the film, what has helped the makers keep the losses in check, are the non-theatrical rights.

Various figures are floating in the industry about how much YRF has lost (some even peg it to just ₹40 crore); however, others, including veteran trade analyst Komal Nahta, insist that the total loss the production house might incur won't be over ₹60 to 70 crore, taking into account the digital, music and satellite rights which earned them over ₹200 crore.

The math is pretty simple. For a producer to be "safe" on a film, the money earned from digital, satellite, and music rights, along with a calculated bare minimum box- office from its theatrical run, should always be closer to the cost of production and publicity.

So, if a producer mounts a film on ₹50 crore, with an additional ₹10 crore on marketing, the cost of the film is ₹60 crore. If the maker earns ₹20 crore by selling digital rights, ₹10 crore for TV and ₹5 crore for music, the total non-theatrical revenue is already at ₹35 crore, against the total cost of ₹60 crore, landing the film in a safe position to at least not lose a lot of money, even if it bombs theatrically. Which, in the case of War 2, seems to have helped.

Are These Sequels Back?

Two long-in-the-making sequels dominated the news this week: Sriraram Raghavan's Badlapur and Akshay Kumar-headlined Rowdy Rathore. Raghavan's sequel to his acclaimed 2015 Varun Dhawan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui-starrer was a surprise announcement by Maddock and Prime Video as part of their collaboration.

In 2018, it was first reported that Badlapur 2 was in the making when the filmmaker was busy mounting Andhadhun. There were talks even then that Vijan would greenlight the sequel (around the same time as Go Goa Gone 2 was picking up steam) as a standalone story set in a similar space. In private circles, and even on record, Raghavan had never dismissed the rumours, nor was there ever a confirmation... until two days ago.

There are still no details on the project, with the filmmaker most likely to return to helm it as he has finished his next, Ikkis, led by Agastya Nanda.

The other sequel, which gained a lot of traction, was Rowdy Rathore 2. For years, insiders have been talking about a possible second instalment of the 2012 film, which originally starred Akshay Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha, with recent (sudden) chatter suggesting that the sequel will indeed get made, but with a fresh cast headlining a standalone film. The sequel script is locked, sources say, but more details about what shape the project takes will be known soon.