After a month-long pause in the theatrical release of new movies, fresh film content is beginning to drive footfalls and occupancy in cinemas. Many state governments had asked theatres to shut because of the third wave of COVID-19, delaying the release of upcoming movies and hurting box-office collections.
"In the last one month, there were almost nil footfalls in cinemas and box-office collections were muted," Amit Sharma, managing director of Miraj Cinemas, told Moneycontrol.
Business has started recovering and filmgoers are returning to the theatres thanks to the February 11 weekend on which many new films, including a Bollywood production, Badhai Do, were released.
And a strong line-up of Bollywood releases over the rest of the financial year is prompting exhibitors to predict that it will be one of the best years for the movie business.
"On February 11, there was the first Hindi release after a month. For Hindi films, occupancy was in single digits before the February 11 weekend. Now the occupancy has gone up to 25-30 percent in cinemas where there is (a) 50 percent (cap on) capacity,” said Rajender Singh Jyala, chief programming officer at
INOX Leisure.
Southern movies like the Telugu-language DJ Tillu and Kannada production Love Mocktail 2 attracted house-full audiences in markets where there exists no capacity cap, Jyala said.
Flood of film content
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Also on the February 11 weekend, a number of regional films such as the Tamil-language FIR and the Marathi production Ka R Deva hit the theatres, along with Hollywood and Bollywood content like Moonfall and Badhaai Do.
"Weekend-to-weekend performance improvement was very strong and was led by cinemas in the South," said Devang Sampat, CEO of Cinépolis India.
Sachidanand Shetty, vice president of operations and business development at Carnival Cinemas, said Badhai Do had performed well on Friday, the opening day.
The turnaround came on the following three days, which included Valentine’s Day on Monday that drew youthful crowds. "Because of Badhai Do, west and north regions were the best-performing markets," Shetty added.
Movie mania
The theatrical release of new films, especially Bollywood productions, has made exhibitors confident about their prospects for the year ahead. INOX's Jyala said the first quarter of financial year 2023 (April-June) will be the strongest for exhibitors. He added: "FY23 will be the biggest year for the film industry with the kind of lineup we have."
A strong lineup of Bollywood films will start hitting the theatres in March. "There are big-ticket films releasing every week for the next quarter or two," Shetty said.
According to Sharma, 22 Bollywood films are due to release in 2022 that have the potential of crossing Rs 100 crore at the box office including Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathan, Aamir Khan-starrer Laal Singh Chaddha and Salman Khan’s Tiger 3. Upcoming releases include Hritik Roshan's Vikram Vedha, Adipurush, Ranbir Kapoor's Shamshera and Brahmastra, Jersey and RRR, made by Baahubali director SS Rajamouli.
"As for Hollywood film calendar, we have three Marvel superhero films like Doctor Strange 2, Thor: Love and Thunder and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. In terms of DC films, there is The Batman, The Flash and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and then there is the most awaited Avatar 2, which will release in December this year," added Sharma. COVID curbs
Along with the release of new content, states lifting COVID-19 restrictions on cinemas will help in the recovery, theatre owners said.
"There are 7-8 states that have allowed 100 percent capacity in cinemas and we expect by next week most of the states allowing full capacity. This should help the upcoming big films like Gangubai Kathiawadi and Valimai. If there is no full capacity, then that will leave a big dent on business," said Jyala.
Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar and Tamil Nadu, among others, have allowed full capacity audiences in theatres, Sharma said. Cinemas in Telangana had already been operating at 100 percent.
"Punjab and Bengal up have upped the occupancy from 50 percent to 60-70 percent. Multiple states are following suit of curbing restrictions on cinema exhibition. And I see business as usual after 24 months of COVID-led disruptions. Confident that if we do not see any disruption due to COVID or pause due to any new (COVID) variant, it will be a dream run for the box office in the next 12-15 months," he said.
