What is Corporate Booking and How It's Done? Author's Take

Corporate booking has become a known word on social media nowadays, especially on Twitter/X. Every time I opened Twitter in 2023, words like "corporate," "organic," and "stardom" popped up on my feed. Why?

Before reading further, please take note that this article is strictly the author's opinion from his various encounters through ground checkups and conversations with fella journalists, marketing people, and industry insiders. The article is not about any particular star, production house, or film. Now, we can move ahead.

A half-decade ago, Book My Show (BMS) was not as popular as it is today. Many people (including myself) used to surf BMS only to check ticket rates and seat availability. After checking, one used to visit the ticket counter and book the ticket of his/her preference to save on convenience charges. A couple of years before that, there was no BMS, so everyone had to go to theatres and book the tickets themselves, except a few online sites, which hardly contributed to 2% of overall ticket sales. Even at that time, there was this tradition of sending your office staff members to watch the film along with their families. This was a part of the celebration since not all people could fit into the premiere night show, but it has now turned into bulk bookings.

Almost a year ago, one of my senior journalist friends, who has been in the industry for almost two decades, went to see a blockbuster film since he couldn't make it to the media screening held by the production house. He booked the tickets on BMS, and the show was about to sell out a night before release. On the release day, when he went to the cinema hall, he saw only 40% occupancy and was shattered. He tried to tell the whole thing to the media fraternity in a WhatsApp group, but a certain section of journalists in that group was a fan of that particular superstar, so they didn't pay any attention. I was unaware of these practices since I haven't been to cinemas (by purchasing a ticket) for almost 4-5 years now, and I watch 98% of films in media screenings, which are usually full. Suddenly, the regular fanwars took an ugly turn and started exposing BMS real-time screenshots, occupancy percentages, the actual audience inside cinema halls, and the final box office numbers provided by producers. The trend started catching everyone's attention, from the fandom and haters club, while some YouTubers used to create viral videos for more income. Those pre-pandemic kinds of trailer launches, music launches, press conferences, etc. are not happening in the post-pandemic times, so obviously the YouTubers had to find a new way to generate income. Somehow, that led to more exposure to these malpractices, and then that terrible "South vs. Bollywood" war became more brutal.

Recently, one of the South producers openly spoke about Bollywood doing "corporate booking," right after his own Bollywood movie became a huge blockbuster. A few months ago, an 80s superstar also hinted at "organic numbers" right after delivering a monstrous blockbuster. That's how the heat of "corporate booking" travelled from Twitter fanwars to YouTubers to journalists, and then to superstars and producers. There could be two reasons for it: either they have heard it from someone in the industry or they are quite active on Twitter to believe it.

Earlier, sending you staff to cinema halls was a common practice because that person had to visit the cinema hall and book the tickets himself. With BMS, it became easy. All you had to do was hire a social media marketing campaign team and give them a certain figure to book so-and-so tickets and bring so-and-so collections. BMS is an app; it's software that doesn't understand human fraud, so it was easy to book as many tickets as you wanted, and there was no tracing of who's booking the ticket (except in the BMS database). A few years ago, theatre owners were against this and had made a rule of "maximum 4 tickets" for one person to stop the bulk booking, but the agencies found a trick for it too. Suppose there is a production house, PR firm, or marketing agency with a staff of 200 people. All they had to do was ask those 200 people to buy 800 tickets (4 tickets each), and it would be enough to make at least 4 shows in a multiplex go orange. But then came tie-ip and partnership wind, which took that prevention factor away from producers. But there is always a loophole in the shortcuts. People on social media, or for that matter, some journalists, were smart enough to point out that if four shows in the same theatres are selling oranges, then why the hell are the other 10 shows on the green revolution? Or sometimes it was only about the morning show to make the public think that the demand for tickets was high and so one should book the ticket ASAP. But the logical point is that if the public WANTS to see the film, they will watch it anyway. That small orange box on BMS won't change their opinion about watching the film since they have to pay their own money in both cases.

The corporate booking has been a regular thing in Bollywood, especially in urban cities where online booking is like a mandatory thing. But no producer or actor could dare do the same in B&C centres where there is no scope for online bookings. In those areas, you have to stand in line and get the tickets at ticket windows. However, the box office numbers coming from these areas are quite low, and that becomes an advantage for producers. They could easily book the entire theatre in an urban city with an average ticket price (ATP) of over Rs. 600, which would cover at least 10 cinemas from B&C centers. That's one of the major reasons why the films are doing huge business despite lesser occupancy. A decade ago, you must remember that any film with a "record opening" tag was getting 85–90% occupancy in morning shows, while some saw 95–100% occupancy throughout the day. Now, the same figure is reduced to 50–55% because the number of screens has increased and the number of footfalls has decreased. Why? Because you are booking tickets, not people. When a certain number of people go to a cinema hall and come out, they naturally promote your film to other people. That's what we call "word of mouth." But how can you get "WOM" when you are booking tickets by yourself and there are no mouths in the cinema hall to spread words? You already spend so much money on your production, then you have to spend money on this too, only to get your own money in return. Logic???

Earlier, these bulk bookings used to stay hidden from one's eyes, but now BMS has made them public. In very recent times, let's say yesterday, one of my journalist friends who works for a leading media portal committed himself to go and see what the reality is on a ground level after reading so much on Twitter. He saw that the show was 95% full on BMS, and when he went inside the hall, he saw only 5% occupancy. This is HORRIBLE! Despite reading so much content on Twitter, hearing so much from industry insiders, and other journalist friends, some of us journalists had enough dedication to see the reality by visiting a theatre and getting shocked by the horrible reality. Sadly, we can't report it; we can't take the actors or producers names to keep our relationship with the PRs because our jobs are very much dependent on each other, but somewhere, as a well-wisher of the industry and an honest movie lover, it feels heartbreaking and humiliating to see such dirty business happening around us. Let's keep mum for 2023 and hope that they don't repeat it again in 2024 for a quick-fading success, and the joke of the box office as well as the joke of journalism (it's on us) gets over soon. Some of us have somehow forced ourselves to get used to the ideas of tie-ups, paid reviews, interviews, friendly gestures, and whatnot, but this "corporate" thing is not on us. It will destroy their careers, reputations, and stardom, which took decades to build.