Alibaba Group acquires majority stake in Chennai-based TicketNew

Alibaba Group’s flagship entertainment arm, Alibaba Pictures Group Limited, has acquired a majority stake in India’s second-largest online ticketing platform, TicketNew.

Marking Alibaba Pictures’ first big acquisition in the burgeoning online ticketing industry outside of China, this strategic partnership will strengthen TicketNew’s operations and service portfolio.

Founded in 2007 by Ramkumar Nammalvar, TicketNew is a Chennai-based ticketing website that has a presence in over 300-plus cities in India.

In the past few years, Alibaba Pictures has expanded its business beyond its home market. It has an office in Los Angeles, USA, and has been looking to expand its footprint in the Asia-Pacific region. In India, online movie ticketing is becoming increasingly popular with increasing penetrations in Tier-2 and Tier-3 regions.

The strategic partnership between Alibaba Pictures and TicketNew can be mutually beneficial. Given Alibaba Pictures’ operational know-how and financial resources, the partnership can potentially help strengthen the leadership and market share of TicketNew in the e-commerce ticketing space and enable the company to capitalise on the burgeoning consumer market in India.

Nammalvar, founder and chief executive officer of TicketNew, who will continue to spearhead the firm's business, said: "Alibaba plans to invest to the tune of Rs 120 crore over a period of time. We are delighted to work with Alibaba Pictures. This secures the future of our staff and the company for generations to come."

"Online ticketing is increasingly becoming popular in the Tier-2 and Tier-3 regions of India as well," he added.

For this season's blockbuster, Baahubali 2: The Conclusion, TicketNew witnessed over 50 per cent of its ticket sales from Tier-2 and Tier-3 markets. Overall, the movie netted TicketNew its best ticket sales ever.
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Baahubali 2 creates new record: First Indian film to cross Rs 800 cr mark

Baahubali - The Conclusion has become the first ever Indian movie to clock Rs 800 crore and is expected to cross around Rs 1,000 crore in the coming week.

According to industry sources, the two films in the series -- Baahubali: The Beginning and Baahubali 2: The Concludion -- had a budget of around Rs 450 crore.

The brainchild of S S Rajamouli not only succeeded in India, but also drew audiences from abroad.

According to a report on BoxofficeIndia.com, Baahubali 2 has amassed as much as Rs 624 crore approximately in six days.

This has not only shattered previous records created by Aamir Khan's Dangal but has also outperformed the lifetime collection of its predecessor in the series, Baahubali: The Beginning. With the film doing exceptionally well, all eyes are now set on the Rs 1.000 crore benchmark. The Hindi version of the film has collected Rs 375 crore.

The movie's Hindi version (dubbed) is already the sixth highest grosser of all time in that language, a feat it achieved in just over a week.
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Baahubali 2 is unstoppable at box office: 10 records that the film broke

As  fans waited with bated breath to know Why Kattappa killed Baahubali? it wasn't surprising to see a beeline in front of movie theatres on April 28 when Baahubali 2: The Conclusion released. Undoubtedly, the thrill helped the film garner a record opening at the box office and the story line also struck the right chord with the audiences.

Prior to the Baahubali 2's release, analysts told Business Standard that the film could be a game changer looking at its unprecedented hype. (Read more here)

The film, starring Prabhas, Rana Daggubati, Anushka Shetty and Tamannaah continues shatter box office records. It netted Rs 320-325 crore over the first three days of release. Here are the ten records which the film broke at the box office till now:

1. Opening weekend collection (Hindi): According to Box Office India, Baahubali - The Conclusion has created history by collecting more than Rs 125 crore over the first weekend in its Hindi format. The film broke Salman Khan-starrer Sultan's record which collected a little over Rs 105 crore and Aamir Khan's Dangal which collected around Rs 107 crore.

Friday - Rs 40,75,00,000 approximately

Saturday - Rs 40,25,00,000 approximately

Sunday - Rs 46,50,00,000 approximately

Total - Rs 1,27,50,00,000 approximately
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Rs 325 cr in 3 days: Baahubali 2 is now the highest opening Indian film

It released to perhaps the most hype seen by an Indian movie in a long time, and it did not disappoint. S S Rajmouli's Baahubali 2: The Conclusion opened with Rs 121 crore collection (previous/early estimates were Rs 125 crore) and continued its good run at the cinemas over the weekend, netting Rs 320-325 crore over the first three days of release.
At Rs 320-325 crore, Baahubali 2 is now the highest opening Indian film, beating Bollywood blockbusters and its predecessor Baahubali: The Beginning (2015) by a huge margin. The highest opening weekend collection by a Bollywood film so far is by Sultan (2016) at Rs 180 crore. However, the movie was released mid-week and hence enjoyed a five-day opening weekend. If one were to consider the Fri-Sun opening weekend period, Baahublali 2 has left Sultan far behind as estimates peg the opening weekend collection for the Hindi dub version only at Rs 128 crore (net after tax).

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In the coming days, the movie is set to break even more records. Already the most widely distributed Indian film ever at 6,500 screens, the film's business seemed to be holding steady on Monday, leading trade pundits to estimate a 30 per cent or less drop in collection on the first day of the week. The fact that Monday, May 1 was a holiday for many office and educational institutions on account of Labour Day and/or Maharashtra Day (in that state) will also work in the favour of the magnum opus.

As things stand, Baahubali 2 is no doubt the most successful Indian movie ever. It is already the highest grossing Hindi dub version of a regional film and by the looks of it, is ready to pull a Jungle Book, by being in the top three movies of the year for the Bollywood genre (Hindi language). Last year, Disney's Jungle Book made a whopping Rs 190 crore at the box office, becoming the most successful Hollywood film to release in India, and also the third highest collector of the year.

There is also almost no doubt now that Baahubali 2 will surpass the first part's lifetime global gross collection of Rs 650 crore. Early reports suggest that the international performance of the film (it was released in 2,500 screens ex-India) is close to Rs 120 crore over the weekend. This takes the worldwide gross for Baahubali 2 in the opening weekend to Rs 540 crore approximately, meaning it is inching closer to the predecessor's lifetime worldwide gross at a fast part. It is currently on number 7 in the list of the highest collecting films from India (gross worldwide).
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Movie review: Baahubali 2 - The Conclusion is a colossal bore

Watching Baahubali 2 is like being in a purportedly romantic relationship with a psychotic person who keeps saying “if you can't handle me at my worst, you don't deserve me at my best”. The worst in this case is basically 150 minutes and the best is around 20 minutes. After a fairly decent first part, director S S Rajamouli seems to have gotten a carte blanche from his producers to let his imagination go unfettered in the second part.

He did make a wild and weird movie but it ends up being a distended mess. As suggested at the end of the first part, Baahubali 2 hits the ground running with the back story of Amarendra Baahubali (Prabhas) and how before his coronation as king of the ancient city of Mahishmati he meets the love of his life Deva Sena (Anushka) under the garb of a simpleton. The first 60 minutes of the movie are slow and the comedy track involving Subba Raju as the simple-minded cousin of Deva Sena barely evokes any laughs. Things pick up a little when Deva Sena realises the real person behind the unassuming guy in her midst and goes to his kingdom with him. A tale of mistaken identities leads to Baahubali's near-real mother Sivagami (Ramya Krishna) make her son Bhallaladeva (Rana Daggubati) as the king.

Second half is how righteousness of both Sivagami and Baahubali lets Bhallaladeva unfurl a vortex of tragedies until his nephew (Mahendra Baahubali) returns to avenge for the deaths. For the last 22 months, we always knew that the antagonist is going to die a bad death in the hands of his blood-thirsty nephew. We have been waiting for the journey for a predestined destination but Rajamouli disappoints. He goes offtrack way too often and by the end we are left huffing and puffing that the whole fuss around Kattappa killing Baahubali is fairly predictable.
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