For the last couple of years, the film industry and theatres lived in genuine fear about the future of movie-going, with no one able to say for sure whether cinemas would recover from the coronavirus pandemic. Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan gave some hope about the tide turning and people sat up and took notice of the box office success of Rocky Rani Ki Prema Kahani.
But the August 11-13 weekend has finally confirmed that happy days are again for the industry. The Producers Guild of India and Multiplex Association of India said on Monday that the weekend was its busiest since theatres re-opened after the pandemic. More than 21 million moviegoers walked into theatres across the country during the period, leading to all-time high gross box office collections of over Rs 390 crore. The admission number, said the industry bodies, was a 10-year record.
The credit for these numbers, say observers, goes to the release of four big budget movies across languages — Sunny Deol’s nostalgia blast Gadar 2 and Akshay Kumar-starrer OMG 2 (both Hindi), Rajinikanth’s Jailer (Tamil), which released on August 9, and Chiranjeevi actioner Bhola Shankar (Telugu).
The country’s largest movie exhibitor PVR INOX – which has 1,708 screens across 361 properties in 115 cities – also had a windfall during the weekend. The chain logged its highest ever admissions and box office in a single day on August 13, entertaining around 1.2 million movie viewers and earning gross box office revenue of around Rs 40 crore. Overall, the weekend was the biggest ever in the company’s history.
“We welcomed around 3.3 million guests at our cinemas and earned gross box office revenue of Rs 100 crore-plus during the weekend,” said a PVR statement. “This validates that consumer enthusiasm for experiencing films in an immersive, larger than life, cinematic environment is as strong as ever.”
“Cinema/multiplex occupancy has moved up sharply towards 55%-60% this weekend against average weekend occupancy of 35%-40% in the post- Covid era,” says Karan Taurani, senior vice-president & research analyst (media, consumer discretionary & internet), Elara Securities.
Gadar 2 is leading the recent releases pack with weekend collection of Rs 135 crore. If the momentum continues over the Independence Day holiday, analysts expect the movie to cross the magic figure of Rs 200 crore in five days.
At this rate, the sequel of the 2001 Gadar: Ek Prem Katha will give this year’s biggest blockbuster Pathaan, which released on January 25 (Wednesday), a good run for its money. Pathaan’s first three-day collections were around Rs 161 crore, with its second day (Republic Day) posting the biggest single day collection of Rs 68 crore. In its five-day extended weekend, Pathaan had earned Rs 271 crore.
Elara estimates that Q2FY24 might report occupancy levels of 80%-85% of the pre-Covid levels, if this momentum continues in September when Shah Rukh Khan starrer Jawan is slated to hit theatres.
“The only overhang is that advertising revenue recovery remains at a mere 70% of pre-Covid levels and will only show signs of improvement once this consistency in Hindi content sustains for 2-3 months more. The fact that multiple large budget films are doing well will change advertiser sentiment over near to medium term,” says Taurani.