There are 15 big Bollywood movies waiting to be released in theatres along with 35-40 medium-size films that are in the pipeline.
The coronavirus outbreak, which led to cinema halls across the country remaining shut for months on end, has wrought many changes in the film exhibition business in India, one of them being the shortening of the theatrical window.
The theatrical window is the period between a film's release in a theatre and its release on other mediums, such as video streaming platforms.
Over the top (OTT) platforms, which used to stream movies eights weeks after their theatrical release, started offering films on their platforms within four weeks as Covid raged across the country and governments ordered most cinemas shut.
The turnaround
Now, top multiplex players expect this window to go back to its pre-Covid length, with major markets, including Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, allowing cinemas to reopen. The Tamil Nadu government on October 23 relaxed restrictions further for theatres allowing cinemas to operate at 100 percent capacity from November 1.
PVR, which has a screen count of 855, expects the theatrical window to be back at its pre-Covid length of eights weeks by the next financial year.
"On the (theatrical) window front, it has come down to four weeks for local films. This is a temporary phase. This decision has been taken to ensure that our content partners, who have suffered financial losses because of delays (in release), can recover their losses. This window will go back to eight weeks. The four-week window will continue till the end of this financial year and not beyond that," said Gautam Dutta, CEO, PVR Limited, during the company's Q2 FY22 earnings call.
He added that the four-week window in India is unique. "In developed markets, during the pandemic, studios released films parallelly on streaming platforms as well as in theatres. In India, we managed to keep the window at four weeks."
Global scenario
Hollywood studios, including Walt Disney and Warner Bros, have released titles such as Black Widow, Mulan, Wonder Woman 1984, and Godzilla vs Kong simultaneously on streaming platforms and in theatres over the past few months.
Post Black Widow's release, the National Association of Theatre Owners in the US had released a statement blaming Disney’s hybrid strategy for a second weekend collapse in theatrical revenues of the film.
Inox, too, eyes 8-week window
Back home, top multiplex player
Inox Leisure's Chief Executive Officer Alok Tandon is confident that the theatrical window will soon go back to eights weeks.
"Going forward it will be eight weeks. We just need more movie releases. Also, a movie when it stays more at the box office, is beneficial for content creators. Box office performance determines how much content creators can get from other platforms," he said, during the company's Q2 FY22 earnings call.
Analysts tracking the exhibition sector estimate the theatrical window will go back to the six-eight week period in around six months.
Even Rahul Kadbet, Vice President, Programming, Carnival Cinemas, in an earlier interview with Moneycontrol had said that the OTT window would go back to the original eight-week period once the Covid situation improves and all States allow 100 percent occupancy for cinemas.
According to Karan Taurani, Senior Vice-President, Elara Capital, most States will allow 100 percent occupancy towards the end of calendar year 2021 with removal of timing restrictions after a large section of the public is vaccinated, as has happened globally.
Betting big on the big screen
While a shorter theatrical window has been a worry for exhibitors as it impacts footfalls, movies skipping a theatrical release to stream directly on OTTs have also been a cause of concern for the cinema business.
But Taurani noted that in India, around 350 films are released every year and over the past two years only 40-45 have been released on streaming platforms directly due to the pandemic-induced shutdown of cinema halls.
Despite the long delay in releasing films in theatres, many producers and studios, especially those offering big Bollywood ventures, waited for theatres to reopen.
Now, with cinemas back in action in key markets Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, West Bengal and Delhi, theatres have a strong release pipeline, including big ventures such as Akshay Kumar's Sooryavanshi and Ranveer Singh's 83.
