Multiplexes have changed the whole movie-going experience from the time when mosquitoes and brusque ushers greeted cinegoers in theatres. Plush seats, cola and coffee holders, and courteous, dapper ushers?the popcorn-munching crowd couldn?t have had it better. What?s more, the multiplex-hopper is willing to spend a buck and more. And multiplex owners are cashing in.
No one is ever able to predict a movie?s fate at the box-office. So, theatre owners are looking beyond the box-office to keep revenue coming in. Some theatres have tied up with providers of food and beverage services. Some others are setting up gaming and kid zones to lure customers. The idea is to provide filmgoers wholesome entertainment that will increase footfalls at multiplexes. A recent PriceWaterhouseCoopers-Ficci study states that the gaming industry is going to dominate the segment over the next five years.
The economics work out, too, according to experts. While it costs Rs 1 crore to set up a gaming zone, theatre owners will need thrice the amount to install a food court.
The board of Cinemax India has given the green signal to the owners to explore various opportunities available in the food court and gaming businesses. The E-City Venture-promoted E-City Media has forged a strategic alliance called Fun Gaming with Zapak Digital Entertainment. The agreement allows Zapak to set up online gaming zones at four Fun Republic malls.
For E-City Media, Zapak will set up online gaming areas at Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Mumbai. According to Vishal Anand, vice-president, E-City Media, the Ahmedabad and Mumbai sites are already up, Lucknow will open next month and work on Chandigarh will begin soon. ?The facilities being made available include video games, arcade games, a pool table and a caf? inside the hall, while a bowling alley will be installed at Ahmedabad and Mumbai,? says Anand. ?The theory purely works on the rental model under which we let out 200-250 sq ft at our properties for these facilities.?
Rohit Sharma, COO, Zapak Digital Entertainment, says that his company has tied up with E-City Media basically for its PC-based games which include Counterstrike (an action game) and Flag Out. ?We?re investing Rs 70-80 crore in the gaming business over a period of 2-3 years and part of it will go to the joint venture, too. The company is looking for more such JVs in future,? he says. Multiplex chains like Inox, PVR and Adlabs have joined the bandwagon, too. According to reports, real estate major DLF group is mulling making food courts mandatory for all its forthcoming multiplexes as it has done at its Gurgaon multiplex.
?Do more? is now a common refrain in the industry. Siddharth Roy Kapur, director, UTV Motion Pictures, says, growth of multiplexes in the country has been very much conventional so far and hence, luxury options like food courts and gaming zones are the need of the hour. ?Therefore, any addition of features to theatres which ensure great ambience will have a positive impact on the exhibition business. The simple reason being that, it provides an integrated experience. Today, people visiting a theatre want to have all the facilities like shopping, eating and gaming zones under one roof,? says Kapur.
Agrees Vishal Gondal, CEO, Indiagames. He says that retail is going to be a big driver for the growth of multiplexes. As the cost of building and running multiplexes is going up, it has become essential for owners to look for alternate sources of revenue. ?You normally come to a theatre half-an-hour before a film begins. Hence, arcade gaming, which includes games like Namco, car racing and sega machine, having a duration of 5-10 minutes, make good sense for the multiplexes,? adds Gondal.
Adlabs was the first to ink a pact with Microsoft Xbox 360 for a gaming zone within one of its larger properties. However, Adlabs has come up with its own gaming zone named Zapak, after severing ties with X-box a few months ago.
Talking about some of the other features Adlabs has added, Tushar Dhingra, COO, Adlabs Films, says, the company has introduced a kids? zone in select cinemas ?where parents can now leave their children in safe hands, with trained ground staff to look after them while they watch a film?. The kids? zone has an in-built games area, miniature rides and toys to entertain children. ?This is an extension to the kiddie zones that are found at select malls nowadays. If parents have an option of shopping while kids play, then why not watch movies while the kids have fun,? says Dhingra.
Another player, Cinemax, which already runs 95 screens on 23 properties mostly in Maharashtra, has already installed 20 bowling alleys after buying them from Thailand-based firm Blue Bowling. Cinemax has tied up with individual mall developers at various places in western and northern regions as it plans to come up with 400 screens in the next 3-4 years. Says Jitendra Mehta, CFO, Cinemax, ?There are basically two ideas behind our plans. We get the space for gaming zones as a cheap bargain as they are located at the top floors of the multiplexes. While the gaming zones are responsible for almost 40% as EBIDTA margins, the food courts contribute 30-35% of the margins. As per our plans, we?ll have six food courts and the gaming zones in equal numbers within 2-3 months from now. The number will increase to 10 each within a year.? Cinemax has already got a gaming zone at its property in Thane, named Eternity Mall.
The noted filmmaker Prakash Jha?s firm, Prakash Jha Productions, whose film Rajneeti is likely to be released next year, is planning to come up with 100 screens at 30 properties in the tier-I and tier-II cities of states like Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa within three years. It has already acquired 18 properties and construction has already begun on four of them. Work on 12 other properties will begin by June. Adlabs will look after the operations. Says Prakash Jha, ?We will also have food courts and gaming zones in our multiplexes. But, we want to go a step further by adding shopping malls and satellite broadband, too.? But then, there are multiplex chains like INOX that do not believe in focusing much on non-box office collection. The INOX multiplex chain, which currently has 22 multiplexes with 76 screens in 17 cities and plans to have over 70 multiplexes by 2010, runs its own brand of theatre food called ?Refuel?. However, it has no plans to go in for other tie-ups. Alok Tandon, COO, INOX Leisure, says that his company would like to ?concentrate on our core business?exhibition?instead of managing stand-alone food courts outside of our multiplexes?.
Rajal Pitroda, who is a Los Angeles-based marketing and distribution executive for independent films in Hollywood, says that aside from compelling content and films that audiences just can?t wait to see, adding food courts, gaming and shopping allow going out to the movie to be one part of an evening out.