Why Indians are skipping cinemas for streaming on Netflix, Prime and other OTTs

• Streaming releases within weeks are reducing theatre attendance in India
• Cinema screens per million fell from 7.6 in 2018 to 6.8 in 2024
• Theatre industry employs 1.38 lakh; expansion could add 1.25 lakh more jobs

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New releases landing on streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video among others within weeks and the comfort of watching at home are dulling the pull of theatres, hitting an industry worth over Rs 18,000 crore.

Driving the news: Of India’s population of 1.4 billion, less than 150 million or around 10 percent are estimated to watch a movie in theatres in a year, as several alternative means of viewing films are available, a new analysis by Ernst & Young showed.

Unlike the 90-day theatrical window before the release of a film on any Over The Top (OTT) platform, a pre-pandemic norm, reduced to four to eight weeks in 2024. A survey of 14,688 cinemagoers in June and July 2025 indicated that the majority, or 81 percent of moviegoers, believed that streaming windows began with the release of the film, or within eight weeks of a film’s theatrical release, which naturally reduced the need to watch all films in the cinema halls.

A significant share of audiences are choosing patience over popcorn. Around 34 percent of moviegoers said they would wait for a film to hit streaming if the theatrical window is short. Another 53 percent admitted they waited for one or more movies to release on streaming platforms and had skipped theatres over the past three months, according to a survey conducted last June.

Feeling the heat: While streaming is eating into theatres as India watches more movies at home, the cinema industry was ailing even before the OTT boom.

The survey mentioned above indicated that one third (35 percent) of moviegoers had reduced the number of films they watched in cinema since the period before COVID-19.

The pandemic period, when theatres were shut for the longest time, changed viewing habits with Indians getting used to watching a variety of content at home. However even before the COVID impact, theatres were feeling the heat.

Why are cinemas losing the plot? The core issue, according to Multiplex Association of India (MAI), is the shortage of screens, particularly low-cost theatres. Out of around 19,000 pin codes in India, 16,350 pin codes have no cinema screens.

The number of cinema screens in India has seen a marginal increase from 9,527 screens in 2019 to 9,927 screens in 2024.

Screens per million of the population have fallen from 7.6 in 2018 to 6.8 in 2024.

India lags as other large content production economies like the US have 109 screens/ million, the UK with 66 screens/ million, and China with 64 screens/ million.

As many as 1,000 single screens have shut down between 2018 to 2024, while large chains have reduced their investments during the period by 12 percent between 2019 and 2024, the EY report stated.

Big screen blues: Over the years, the theatre business has struggled to keep pace with the rapid growth of India’s media and entertainment (M&E) sector and the rise in per capita income.

Its revenues or filmed entertainment revenues fell 2 percent from their peak in 2019, decreasing from Rs 19,100 crore to Rs 18,746 crore in 2024.

The revenue per screen decreased by 5 percent, from Rs 1.21 crore in 2019 to Rs 1.15 crore in 2024.

The success rate of films has also been declining. Between 2019 and 2024, while a similar number of films were released in theatres, the number of films grossing Rs 100 crore or more at the box office fell from 17 to 10, a 41 percent reduction.

On the contrary, India’s M&E sector grew at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 5.42 percent, India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew at a CAGR of 6.6 percent, and India’s per capita GDP grew 5.75 percent during the same period.

Why does it matter? The theatre industry currently employs around 1.38 lakh people in India. If the industry expands, so will the employment opportunities.

If the number of cinema screens increases from 9,927 screens today to 20,000 screens, theatrical revenues are expected to be Rs 6,600 crore.

And this will also lead to 125,000 more direct jobs.