Theater Revenue Soars To Pre-Pandemic Level Despite Pricey Movie Tickets

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Mumbai, May 28 - The Indian cinema biz went through a lot of challenges due to the covid-19 pandemic since the second quarter of 2020. The massive covid break out forced theaters to shut for nearly 1 and a half years which posed serious questions about theaters' existence.

However, despite remaining shut for such a long time, the magic of big-screen remains unaffected as after opening their doors to viewers in the second half of 2021, theatres are back to the pre-pandemic level of collections this year. The tentpole titles of this year along with surprise blockbusters helped theaters' revenue to go up to the pre-pandemic level cinema owners are hoping that the momentum will continue throughout this year.



"Last three months have been good for us. On average, we are clocking more than ₹1000-1500 crore every month", Inox Leisure's chief programming officer, Rajender Singh Jyala, said (via business insider) adding, "Movies RRR and Gangubai Kathiawadi pushed the recovery. Before that, Kashmir Files and now with Bhool Bhulaiya 2, our footfalls and domestic ticket sales are at pre-pandemic level or even better".

With such a highly positive trend as far as theater revenue is concerned, 2022 could turn out to be a golden year for the Indian cinema industry as Rajender Singh Jyala is optimistic that the upcoming movies such as Prithviraj, Brahmastra, and Lal Singh Chaddha, among others will set the ball rolling.

Media consulting firm Ormax Media's Partner, Gautam Jain, said, "The overall domestic box office collections have crossed the ₹4000 crores gross mark from January to April. This is the highest gross box office collection for January to April since 2018. Given this growth trajectory and looking at the line-up of films slated to release this year, a gross box office collection of ₹12,000 crore looks possible, which would make this year the highest ever in terms of the gross box office [collection]".

While the revenue of theaters has increased significantly, the overall footfalls remain average as compared to the pre-pandemic level. Explaining why the gross box office revenue is higher than 2019 while footfalls continue to be low, Jain said, "The gross box office collections are higher due to the ticket prices being higher by 15-30% across languages. The ticket prices have increased even in south markets".

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