Listed multiplex chain PVR Inox stayed in the red for the second straight quarter, but it saw some silver lining in its strategy to bring back some old content.
Re-released movies like Tumbbad, Laila Majnu, Rockstar and Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein drove footfalls in PVR Inox theatres and contributed 6 percent to the overall footfalls in the September quarter.
“Re-releases were a good strategy that we adopted. To our Q2 box office, old films roughly contributed 6 percent of total admissions and 3.5 percent of box office collections due to lower ticket prices of older films. Typically, for re-releases, the distributors share is lower resulting in higher profitability for us,” Gaurav Sharma, chief financial officer of PVR Inox, told Moneycontrol.
Almost 13 percent of admissions in September came from older releases, he said.
Riding the old horse
"When films are available, the audience is there. After Stree 2, for a couple of weeks there were hardly any films. Many big movies that were scheduled to release in the September quarter were postponed. During this time, good quality older films got good response from the audience," he said.
For re-releases like Laila Majnu and Rockstar, PVR Inox has a higher contribution in their overall box office. Rockstar recorded gross box office collection (GBOC) of Rs 10.5 crore and the film's collection at PVR Inox cinemas was Rs 9.4 crore. Similarly, Laila Majnu registered a GBOC of Rs 9.5 crore, while its PVR Inox business was Rs 7.7 crore. For Tumbbad, however, the contribution was lower with the film posting a GBOC of Rs 37.8 crore and mopped up Rs 19 crore at PVR Inox.
"In the last eight to nine months, we've seen consistent performance from re-releases with a few of them having performed like a brand new film. This came unexpectedly for many. People were surprised and they thought it was a fluke. But this trend has managed to succeed," Kamal Gianchandani, CEO of PVR Inox Pictures, shared during an analyst call on October 15.
"Initially, a lot of people didn't believe in the long-term sustainability of this emerging trend. So, a lot of exhibitors were not participating in re-release strategy. But we were aggressive on this. In the earlier re-releases like Rockstar, Laila Majnu, Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein, PVR Inox had a disproportionate contribution in the box office because they released in the entire chain of PVR Inox," he said. When Tumbadd released, more exhibitors jumped on to the bandwagon and the contribution of PVR Inox was lower, he added.
Mapping an alternate route
Alternate content is something that will be hugely fine-tuned by April 2025, said Gautam Dutta, co-CEO of PVR Inox. "There have been about 80-odd re-released films in the first half of FY25 and this number will be upwards of 140-150 by the time the year ends."
Gianchandani said that like the trend of South films being dubbed in Hindi, which has become like a sustainable practice and is doing handsome numbers, the trend of re-releases is also here to stay.
"We have a lot of people internally who are looking at these gaps and opportunities. But at the same time, we also keep getting a lot of initiatives from the production houses. A lot of producers keep approaching us. For example, Khosla Ka Ghosla, which is re-releasing on 18th, we were approached by the producer. Therefore, producers' interest in a re-release is also extremely important," he added.
Dutta pointed out that the box office share of producers for older content is lower than that for a new film which means higher gross margins for exhibitors.
"If a re-release does good business, it is profitable for us. It is able to give us the contribution which helps us recover our overall fixed costs. But it is important to see the period in which old movies are being re-released. We would not do a re-release in a week when we have got two brand new films which are potentially in the blockbuster category. But in a week where we have soft releases or we have less releases, we will come up with a re-release," Gianchandani said.
Sharma pointed out that rescheduling of big releases like Pushpa 2 and Singham Again affected the September quarter business but he is hopeful of a turnaround in Q3. "It (Q3) will be the best quarter in this financial year. There are big English language titles so Hollywood will bounce back in a big way with movies like Mufasa, Captain America: Brave New World. Among Hindi and regional films, the upcoming lineup includes Baby John, Pushpa 2, Singham Again, Kanguva."
High on a change
While exhibitors are counting on the December quarter for improvement in business, release lineup, occupancy and footfalls remain lower than the pre-Covid period.
"We believe there is yet a lot of headroom to grow. Post-Covid, the back-end production side of a business was disrupted. A lot of producers who were regularly churning out films took a pause and a lot of people went into that zone where they became quite unsure whether they should make a particular film. The green-lighting process (of films) went through a lot of churns because the consumer taste was changing and box office had become more unpredictable," Gianchandani said.
He added that in the last 15-18 months there has been more semblance to the box office which is becoming more and more like what it was before the pandemic. However, the challenge remains the quantity of new films. "The quantity (of new films) is still not back in shape. It's still not back at the level at which it used to be in 2019. So that's an area where we are hoping to see improvement over the next 12-15 months," he said.
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