Hit Tamil film Master to stream on OTT platform Amazon Prime Video from day after

Distributors and Exhibitors in Tamil Nadu are furious with the news that Amazon Prime Video has informed its subscribers that they could see hit film Master from the comforts of their homes from January 29.

“We were all shocked. We would have actually made profits in the third and fourth week and now this OTT release will eat into our weekend crowds. We are about to take a big hit,” a cinema owner in Chennai said.

Typically, the exhibitors agree to a 70-30 revenue split with producers for films which have big stars like Vijay. In other words, for every Rs 100 that exhibitors make on a ticket, Rs 70 will go to the producers, say, for the first two weeks after a film’s release. In the following week, the revenue share of theatres will go up by say 10 per cent. This is the window for theatre owners to actually make profits.

Some theatres have even agreed to 80-20 profit-sharing with the producers of Master. These terms were agreed as a goodwill gesture considering the fact that the makers waited for a year to release this film in cinemas,” it is learnt.

The main grievance of the exhibitors of Master is that they were kept in the dark about the film’s OTT release strategy.