Sanjeev Kumar Bijli, executive director of PVR INOX has a lot to be happy about these days. The two latest theatrical releases — ‘Oppenheimer’ and ‘Barbie’ — together logged Rs 70 crore at the box office the weekend just gone by.
“All films are rallying at this time and this proves just one thing – it is content that matters; give people a great film and they will come,” he says.
Of this, the Christopher Nolan biographical thriller contributed the larger chunk Rs 50 crore. This is in stark contrast to the US box office trends where Barbie collected $155 mn in ticket sales (compared to estimates of $70m-$80m) and Oppenheimer grossed $80mn (double the expectation).
PVR INOX contributed 55% to Oppenheimer’s weekend collections across circuits and 65% to that of ‘Barbie’. The south circuit – comprising Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, which has a bigger appetite for English movies – outperformed West and North across major theatre chains.
Occupancy rates of ‘Oppenheimer’ was 60% over the weekend and that of Barbie was 45%. On a consolidated net box office basis, the two Friday releases can expect to do about Rs 200 crore at the box office in the first week, say experts.
That is good news for theatre operators who saw a weak Q1FY24 with no Bollywood film, except ‘The Kerala Story’ and a handful of Hollywood movies such as ‘Mission Impossible 7’ and ‘Fast X’ doing well at the box office. The box office revenues of large chains were down 20-25% YoY in the first of the year because of fewer footfalls (down 21% YoY), estimates Elara Capital. Ad revenue recovery across theatres has also remained slow as Hindi content performance remained volatile, say experts.
The hero in these circumstances has been non-Bollywood content.
Two non-Hindi movies crossed Rs 100 crore at the box office in the last one month. There’s Punjabi film ‘Carry on Jatta 3’, which was released strategically before the Eid holidays on June 29 on 560 screens across the country and has become the first Punjabi movie to enter the Rs 100-crore club. It has grossed Rs 10 crore worldwide since release. Then there’s Marathi movie ‘Baipan Bhaari Deva’ distributed by Jio Studios which has given a massive boost to a industry long pooh-poohed as Bollywood’s poor cousin.
“Basically there’s no good or bad months/seasons for film now and no language barrier,” Bijli adds. “Great content is language agnostic and apart from IPL or exam months people have started coming to theatres is good numbers.”