Nanban Box Office Collections and Piracy

The Box office collections for Nanban have been good so far. But for record keepers, it has not tumbled any old records. It may come as a bit of a surprise for a Shankar and Vijay movie which has always gotten bigger after every movie. With entertainment tax waived for both Pongal releases, distributors and producers are breathing a sigh of relief because of good collections from both Nanban and Vettai. We spoke to a few people in the Industry to understand the phenomenon and whether this is a source of concern.

• Unlike previous Shankar and Vijay movies, Nanban was not released as widely as one would have expected to see. It was conscious decision by the Nanban team to not saturate the market and affect the prospects in the long run.

• In International markets (especially Europe), Nanban is released by Gemini Circuits. Usually, Ayngaran releases Vijay movies and has promoted it at grass-root level through their extensive network. Hence, the reason for Nanban collecting almost Rs. 15 Lakhs less than Velayudham in the UK from opening weekend.

• Secondly, Nanban's piracy level has been extremely high both in domestic and international markets. Large number of people watched Nanban on the internet on Pongal day. For example, one of our unconfirmed sources claim that Nanban was watched on the internet by roughly 10,000 people in Europe on Saturday. It is shocking to see the amount of money lost due to piracy.

• One of the exhibitors from Erode mentioned that in B centers and other interior centers, Vettai was also doing almost equally well among family audiences, with theatres reporting visibly more women crowd for Vettai compared to Nanban.

Overall, this should not be a source of any concern in the long run. With positive word of mouth for Nanban, the collections are expected to stabilize and hold steady for an extended duration unlike previous Vijay movies. During the last few years, Vijay movies have started strong and showed sharp declines from 3rd week onwards due to lack of support from family, women and neutral fans in the past. However, Nanban is expected to reverse that trend with Nanban as Vijay transforms himself from Mass to a Mass/Class hero.