Multiplexes say Bollywood is back as Brahmastra becomes highest Hindi grosser post COVID

"While social media users for many months have been hammering Bollywood, audience is loving the film with Brahmastra creating a record in terms of highest opening a Hindi film has seen including its dubbed version at the India box office post-pandemic," he told Moneycontrol.

Shares of PVR and INOX traded higher on September 12 versus September 9 by 3.4 percent and 4 percent, respectively. PVR shares closed at Rs 1,898 against Rs 1,834 on September 9 and INOX shares rose to Rs 514 versus Rs 493.​

Brahmastra's box office

The Alia Bhatt-Ranbir Kapoor-starrer collected around Rs 31-33 crore on day one and recorded over Rs 100 crore during its first weekend.

"Occupancy overall was around 55 percent on Friday (day one) and the film could collect Rs 60-70 crore in the next four days. So, in the first week itself the film could collect around Rs 170 crore and we expect the film's lifetime business to touch Rs 300 crore, depending on how next Friday pans out," said Jyala.

Sharing similar views on Brahmastra's lifetime business, Satwik Lele, chief operating officer of MuktaA2 Cinemas, said the movie was to be a boxoffice super hit.

"The weekend collection for MuktaA2 Cinemas was Rs 1.3 crore GBOC (gross box office collections). There has been strong day-wise growth over the weekend," Lele said.

Despite mixed reviews, the film produced by Star Studios and Dharma Productions has become the ninth Indian film to have crossed the Rs 100 crore mark during its first weekend and the second film to do so post-pandemic.

"If there are negative reviews on social media for a film and if that movie's content is weak, then collections see a drop on the second day of the release. We have seen that for Thugs of Hindostan (2018) which had recorded over Rs 50 crore on opening day but the film made around Rs 130 crore and the film had tanked. For Brahmastra, there are mixed reviews on social media but we saw a 25 percent jump on day two (in collections)," said Jyala.

The reason for Brahmastra's strong performance is two fold, said Karan Taurani, senior vice-president, Elara Capital.

"Audience has enjoyed the VFX in this film and it has been well accepted by youth (15-25 years) age group, due to its VFX (visual) and special effects. The second reason is higher ticket prices, which are 30 percent higher than average ticket price due to 3D and IMAX format sales. The above performance should bode well for September and metrics like SPH (spending per head), occupancy and ATP (average ticket price) should see healthy growth," he said.

Pan-India film

Brahmastra has brought relief for exhibitors in north of India, said Amit Sharma, managing director of Miraj Cinemas. "The occupancy was 70 percent in our cinemas. We were looking for strong footfalls from a Bollywood film."

Sharma noted that this year there have been discussions around southern films doing well, but there being no takers for Hindi movies, and audience rejecting both good and bad films even before their release. Hindi films that did good business, like Gangubai Kathiawadi and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2, were said to have performed well only in Hindi-speaking territories and that they were not pan-India films.

"Now, all these three debates have been put to rest because Brahmastra is a pan-India film," said Sharma.

He pointed out that the film's dubbed version, especially the Telugu language one, was seeing good traction. "The Telugu version of the film has seen highest collection by a Hindi film," he said.

Jyala expects the film to surpass the business of dubbed versions of the highest grossers by day four.

"Few Hindi films have done decent numbers for dubbed version including movies like War, Dangal. It will cross the dubbed version collection of films like War, Dangal by day four as Brahmastra's dubbed version recorded Rs 5 crore on opening day. Highest collection from dubbed version of Hindi films like Dangal or War was in the range of Rs 12-15 crore," he said.

Footfalls remain low

While Lele and Jyala said that footfalls have been strong for the film, Taurani noted that viewership for a movie of Brahmastra’s scale was low.

"If you compare Ranbir Kapoor's film Sanju (2018 release), Brahmastra has seen that kind of footfalls in (only) INOX cinemas," said Jyala.

Taurani said footfalls for the large-scale film are likely to be 15-20 percent lower versus similarly mounted films in pre-COVID times.

"In the strongest quarter of FY23 which was Q1, footfalls for cinemas were approximately 10 percent lower than pre-COVID levels due to which Hindi box office is slated to decline 45 percent versus pre-COVID levels in Q2FY23. This is despite ticket prices being higher by almost 10-15 percent, which means footfall decline could be over 50 percent. Footfall decline remains a concern over the near term," he said.