While the South Indian movie industry has recovered close to 80% of its pre-Covid business on the back of successive hits at the box office, the Bollywood script mimics its tragic heroes that fall prey to their own weaknesses. With back to back flops registered by A-list Hindi actors, recovery seems some way off. So, exhibitors are pulling out all the stops to woo audiences with offers and ticket discounts and pinning their hopes on the Q4, 2022 line-up.
Over 6.5 million people, for instance, thronged theatres on the first ever National Cinema Day organised on September 23 to commemorate the successful reopening of movie halls after Covid. An initiative of the Multiplex Association of India, it was scheduled weeks after the promising release of Ranbir Kapoor-Alia Bhatt’s “Brahmastra: Part One Shiva”, and saw participation from cinema chains like PVR, INOX, Cinepolis, Carnival, Miraj, Wave, and Delite, covering more than 4,000 screens across the country. Ticket price: An inviting Rs 75! Then, during the Navratri weekend (September 23 to 29), Brahmastra ticket prices went for Rs 100.
Big-ticket events such as these, experts say, help generate trials among audiences who may be jittery about visiting theatres after the experience of the pandemic days. According to Karan Taurani, senior VP at Elara Capital, it is a good thing that movie theatre chains are giving discounts on ticket prices because they had increased prices 20-25% over pre-Covid levels, which is not a good idea if they want people to step out of their homes. “At a time when content is not consistent such discounting strategies will help get the footfalls back on track. Next year we anticipate ticket price hikes to be in the 5-6% range because one really can’t foresee a 10-15% hike every year,” he adds.
For Cinépolis, the National Cinema Day event resulted in footfalls of 2.71 lakh — the highest ever in a day in its history. Devang Sampat, CEO, Cinepolis India, says, “For December, there are offers that will reward patrons for watching movies at Cinépolis.” Miraj Cinema is looking to bring back some of the pre-Covid offers to woo cine-goers while PVR is toying with the idea of opening films at lower-than-usual prices. “Pricing is something that we are using more aggressively and we are coming up with different packages to attract customers,” adds Sanjeev Kumar Bijli, joint managing director, PVR.
Content remains king
In a regular year, Bollywood movies contribute 40-45% to the domestic gross box office collections. However, the industry has had a poor showing this year, accounting for just about 33% of the Rs 9,024 crore cumulative box office collection in the January-October 2022 period, according to Ormax Media’s The India Box Office Report. Of the total revenue contributed by Bollywood, more than a third was courtesy Hindi-dubbed versions of Telugu, Tamil and Kannada language films.
“I believe the content has to resonate with the audiences. We are now exposed to such high-quality content through OTT channels that consumers have got used to a certain standard. If someone wants audiences to get out of the house, they must serve really good content,” Bijli says. Agrees Amit Sharma, managing director, Miraj Entertainment: “The industry needs good content, consistently. It will take another 12-18 months’ time before we talk about reaching pre-pandemic levels in terms of admissions.”
For Miraj, Q1 admissions were to the tune of 40 lakh-plus, which dropped to around 27 lakh in Q2. He expects Q3 to be over 40 lakhs and “Q4 looks promising”.
“Broadly, in recent years, exhibitors have been doing around Rs 900-1,000 crore a quarter from Hindi box office; this Q1 we were 15% higher than that; but since then we have only seen a decline. But Q4 packs a lot of surprises,” Taurani says.
While Bollywood movies failed to resonate much of this year, the content line-up for the November-December period has been strong with movies including Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Drishyam 2, Bhediya and Avatar: Way of the Water. Bhediya, released in end-November, logged Rs 43.67 crore in first weekend box office total (worldwide gross).
“We are expecting good content to help deliver higher revenues for us in this quarter, compared to the last quarter,” says Sampat of Cinepolis. “With some Hollywood releases and big-ticket Bollywood releases doing good numbers, we expect admissions to improve and get close to pre-Covid levels soon,” he adds.
Exhibitors expect 2024 to start strong with movies such as Adipurush and Pathaan releasing in January, followed by Shehzada starring Kartik Aaryan, who delivered his career’s biggest blockbuster Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 in 2022, Ajay Devgn-starrer Maidaan, and American superhero film Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
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