Multiplex chain PVR Inox recorded highest ever single-day footfalls and box office collections on August 13 riding on Rajinikanth's Jailer, Sunny Deol-starrer Gadar 2, Akshay Kumar's OMG 2 and Telugu film Bhola Shankar.
The company registered 12.8 lakh guests and mopped up a gross box office revenue of Rs 39.5 crore on Sunday alone. The August 11-13 weekend has been the best in its history with 33.6 lakh footfalls and a collection of over Rs 100 crore. It was also the busiest weekend in the post-Covid period, the multiplex chain said.
Cinemas across India registered an audience turnout of over 2.10 crore during the weekend ahead of the Independence Day holiday, the highest combined footfall recorded in the last 10 years.
This comes at a time when theatres saw a muted June quarter in FY24 due to films performing below expectations.
"On all parameters, including occupancy, box office and admissions, this weekend (August 11-13) is the biggest," Kamal Gianchandani, President of the Multiplex Association of India (MAI), told Moneycontrol.
Gianchandani expects August 15 to be bigger than August 13. "All four are films are doing well and OMG 2 has picked up tremendously across multiplexes and single screen cinemas. During the August 11-13 weekend, films have done well pan-India and across properties, including single screen theatres, multiplexes in smaller centres as well as in big cities. Theatres in cities like Bengaluru where all four films have been screening recorded over 90 percent occupancy and across India it is in the range of 70-75 percent," he said.
While there were concerns that OMG 2 box office business will be restricted due to its 'A' certification, the film fared well so far largely on strong word of mouth. Jinesh Joshi, Research Analyst at Prabhudas Lilladher, said that after a slow start, OMG 2 picked up on the third day of its release and has collected Rs 43 crore so far. "Given the good word of mouth and audience reviews, we expect the movie to pick up pace in the second leg of its theatrical run."
Gadar 2 collected Rs 135 crore in the opening weekend and has become the second highest opener of 2023 after Pathaan, noted Joshi. As there is a holiday on account of Independence Day on August 15, we can expect houseful shows as the movie theme surrounds patriotism. Given such a solid start, Gadar 2 can surpass over Rs 200 crore in lifetime collections," he added. Jailer fetched Rs 146 crore in the extended opening weekend, he pointed out.
He said that the content pipeline for the September quarter has movie releases including Dream Girl 2, Shah Rukh Khan's Jawan and Prabhas' Salaar. "We expect sharp improvement in box office performance this quarter (Q2 FY24)," Joshi said.
Gianchandani pointed out that the box office momentum during the August 11-13 was led by Hindi films that so far have been performing below average at the box office.
However, analysts note that in Q2 FY24, Hindi box office is estimated to be 25 percent lower than pre-Covid levels at Rs 750 crore and footfalls will remain 40 percent lower than pre-Covid level.
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