Ticket sales worth millions, but how accurate are the claims?

Confusion Reigns Over Eid Film Box Office Collections in Dhallywood

Dhaka — Eight days after the release of this year’s Eid films, conflicting reports on ticket sales continue to create confusion across Bangladesh’s film industry, known as Dhallywood.

Film-related social media groups and pages are circulating widely varying figures for the same movies. For certain films, some sources claim earnings of Tk 40 million (Tk 4 crore), while others report only Tk 20 million (Tk 2 crore), leaving audiences and industry insiders bewildered.

Many of these groups cite Star Cineplex as their source of data. However, Mesbah Uddin Ahmed, Senior Manager of Media and Marketing at Star Cineplex, clarified that the cinema chain has not issued any official statement on film earnings.

“We have not made any statement regarding film earnings,” Ahmed said. “Those referring to us are simply using our online ticket sales data and the number of shows to make their own estimates.”

He added that some estimations could be reasonably accurate. “For example, if there are 100 shows, they can check how many were houseful and how many seats remained vacant. Such information is easily available online these days,” he explained.

Several individuals associated with the Eid releases believe that while the figures for one or two films may be close to reality, most circulating numbers are rough estimations. Others suspect that some parties are deliberately spreading misleading information to influence public perception.

Shahriar Shakil, producer of the film Domm, stated that his movie is performing well, but most of the revenue figures being shared are inaccurate.

“Most of the revenue figures circulating in various places are not accurate. Some are providing fabricated information,” Shakil said. “Since we do not have an official box office tracking system in Bangladesh, we do not wish to disclose any figures at this stage.”

Director Tanim Noor of Bonolota Express also expressed frustration over the inconsistent reports. He noted that while some sources provide credible data, many others share incorrect figures.

“We always want to publish accurate figures,” Noor said. “After Eid, we released ticket sales data for the first four days, which exceeded Tk 10 million (Tk 1 crore). Yesterday, we released the eight-day earnings, which stand at Tk 22.6 million (Tk 2.26 crore).”

He added that many have correctly taken information from the film’s official page, but some are wrongly claiming the earnings are only between Tk 10 million and Tk 20 million. “This actually refers to gross sales, and the numbers being quoted are not correct,” he clarified.

Of the five major films released during Eid — Prince, Domm, Bonolota Express, Rakkhosh, and Pressure Cooker — only Bonolota Express has officially shared its earnings data so far. The remaining three films have not released any official box office figures.

The absence of a centralized and transparent box office tracking system in Bangladesh continues to fuel speculation and debate every Eid season.