South India will account for a large chunk of the 100 screens PVR Inox intends to open this financial year to tap into the region’s robust love for cinema.
Out of the 40 screens planned for the South in FY26, bigger theatres with premium formats are coming up in places like Hyderabad and Hubli.
Spotlight on South
"Properties down South will range from 6-9 screens. In places like Bengaluru, there's a multiplicity of languages where people like to watch local language, English as well as Hindi movies. Therefore, our scale of multiplexes and number of screens are much higher," Sanjeev Kumar Bijli, Executive Director, PVR Inox, told Moneycontrol.
The company is opening a new four-screen property in Hyderabad and plans a total of 26 screens in the region by FY26. Telangana is all set to get its first P[XL] screen (a premium screen which is around 50 percent larger than a regular screen), plus three Luxe formats (premium cinema).
It will be investing around Rs 150 crore to build new screens in South India.
What is so attractive about South India?
Biji pointed out that a lot of metrics that remain way below pre-Covid levels in many markets are seeing a healthy improvement in South India.
"If footfalls have dipped post-Covid by around 10 percent, in South India, the number is going up and reaching the pre-COVID levels faster than the rest of the country," he said.
He added that South India has always been a very lucrative market for them because of the propensity to watch films and a robust local film industry.
"Over the years, movies from down South have also resonated with people across the country. Audiences even in North and West are consuming them. Plus, as opposed to North and West, the mall development culture in South India was a few years behind but is catching up now," he said.
Smaller market screen surge
Along with the southern markets, the multiplex chain is also focusing on Tier I and II cities for screen expansion, and 20 percent of the company's new screen openings this financial year will be in smaller cities.
"We are conscious about pin codes where we don't have cinemas. And cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai are getting saturated. So, our focus will be more towards smaller places," Bijli said.
"We have cinemas coming up in Siliguri, Gangtok, Muzaffarpur, Jabalpur, Machilipatnam, Guwahati, Bhubaneswar, among others. Also, in Agra, which is a noticeable city but is very under-streamed, we are looking at opening one this year. Even down South, apart from the major cities, we have screens coming up in Kumbakonam and Ranipet in Tamil Nadu," Bijli said.
He added that while PVR Inox is perceived as a metro-centric multiplex operator, they are opening up screens in smaller cities.
"We are perceived as a metro and luxury company. But we do have cinemas in Tier II and III cities. In Punjab, we have cinemas in Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Khanna and Amritsar. We have covered most of Punjab. In Leh, Ladakh, we are coming up with the first cinema of the region in FY26. It will be a management model and there will be two screens. We are doing two screens and on management because the cinema cannot be kept open for 12 months a year because of severe weather conditions. It can be kept open only for eight months," Bijli said.
India remains underscreened
Bijli added that India still remains very underscreened.
Screen count increased 2 percent to reach 9,927 in 2024, led by Maharashtra, which added 50 new screens (5 percent increase), Kerala, which added 36 new screens (5 percent increase), Rajasthan (8 percent increase) and Gujarat (2 percent increase), according to FICCI-EY 2024 report.
However, India’s screen density remains extremely low, compared to other countries like the US and China, with just 6 percent of its population entering any cinema hall in a year, due to lower-cost alternatives like OTT (over-the-top) platforms and TV being available to a large population.
"Entertainment tax break had given a massive impetus to screen growth and we had seen a lot of screens opening up. States either gave full entertainment-tax exemption or state tax exemption, which gave an impetus to building more screens and the rollout was much faster. If we can look at GST (Goods and Services Tax) exemption or a reduction to start with for a period of time, let's say 3-5 years, where we can recover the initial investment much faster, we can go back to the original GST slab. This could be one of the areas where we could look at the government supporting and helping us," Bijli said.
He added that building cinemas is becoming expensive. "Real estate and construction costs are very high. But as an industry, we have slowed down in the post-pandemic period. Pre-Covid, it was a good 250 screens collectively being added every year. But now, we have gone down to, maybe 150 screen additions, from all the players. If exhibitors can get some subsidies, hopefully we can build more cinemas and we can reach 20,000 screens from 10,000," he said.
Expecting a blockbuster
Bijli is also expecting a strong first quarter in FY26.
"Initial indications suggest that admissions are up from Q1 last financial year and all the other metrics like ticket price, F&B (food & beverage) sales and advertising revenues are up from Q1 and Q4 of the last financial year."
In Q1 FY25, PVR Inox reported 3.04 crore admissions/footfalls, an average ticket price (ATP) of Rs 235, Rs 401.8 crore in F&B sales and Rs 93.4 crore in advertising revenue.
In Q4 FY25, the company reported 3.05 crore footfalls, an ATP of Rs 258, Rs 381.1 crore in F&B sales and Rs 96.2 crore in ad income.
Along with new releases, Bijli expects alternate content, including reruns, music concerts and sports tournaments, continuing their momentum on the big screen in FY26.
"Last year re-releases, matches, music concerts, stand-up comedy, and recorded events contributed around 8 percent to our total footfalls. We do understand that there will be lean periods as far as content is concerned, going forward. So, we should be able to build a repertoire of content to bring people back to the cinemas. In terms of the quantum of re-releases, it's more or less going to be the same. We had about 200 re-releases last year," Bijli said.
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