Mumbai, June 5
More than 40 movies, including several big-budget flicks, will hit the screens across the country in the next few weeks as the tussle between film producers and multiplexes over profit sharing ended here on Friday.

The standoff ended early this morning hours after the Anil Ambani-owned Big Cinema multiplex chain convinced the producers’ association to accept the revenue sharing formula suggested by its CEO Amit Khanna. A little after 2.30 in the afternoon, representatives of other multiplex chains agreed to the formula ending 15 hours of negotiations at the YashRaj Studios here.

Under the terms of agreement, revenues for the first week of a film would be shared equally by both film producers and the multiplexes. In the second week, the producers’ take would go down to 42.5 per cent and in the third and fourth week, their share would reset at 37.5 per cent and 30 per cent, respectively. Should a film turn out to be a hit from word go earning more than Rs 17.50 crores in the top six multiplex chains, the producers would get an additional 2.5 per cent share of the collections in the first three weeks.

Multiplex owners have also decided not to press for a say in deciding the distribution strategy of the films. Producers claim this as a major victory saying the multiplexes would otherwise not have allowed them to release films in single screen cinemas and in small towns across the country.

“We have come to an agreement on all the issues and we will begin releasing movies from June 12,” said film producer Mukesh Bhatt who headed the negotiating team.