India’s top multiplex chains bank on festive season to bring cheer back

BENGALURU/MUMBAI,Oct 20 (Reuters) – A slate of flop Bollywood motion pictures have hit India’s prime cinemas exhausting, leaving the business to financial institution closely on the present festive quarter to revive its fortunes

Inox (INOL.NS) and PVR (PVRL.NS), the highest multiplex operators within the nation who reported outcomes this week, each blamed an absence of fine content material for lackluster second-quarter efficiency, and stated they’re betting on the third quarter to place them again on a development observe.

“Q3 is essential (for the businesses),” stated Karan Taurani, an analyst at Elara Capital.

Audiences have historically flocked to theatres throughout India’s busy competition season, which culminates within the Hindu competition of lights, Diwali, which will likely be celebrated on Monday.

Producers save the most important movies of the yr for a Diwali launch, and the business expects them to do properly throughout this era, nevertheless it is probably not fairly as festive this yr.

“Even the Q3 releases, which occur to happen throughout the festive season, are considerably muted and underwhelming within the response they’re getting,” movie producer and commerce analyst Girish Johar stated.

Occupancy charges at Inox had been at 17% for the quarter, with PVR at 24%, analysts at home brokerage and analysis agency Nirmal Bang stated, blaming the lackluster attendance on “poor shopper join with the content material launched within the second quarter.”

Within the first quarter, Inox reported a 29% occupancy charge, whereas PVR stated its charge was 33.6% in the identical interval.

The 2 chains are set to merge in an all-stock deal and change into the nation’s largest exhibition firm with 1,546 screens throughout 109 cities.

“Everyone knows that occupancy is expounded to the content material which we’re displaying. And we now have some main challenges with the content material in Q2,” Inox Chief Government Alok Tandon stated in an earnings name on Wednesday.

As well as, the rise of streaming companies like Netflix (NFLX.O) and Amazon Prime (AMZN.O) throughout the COVID pandemic has mixed with rising Bollywood fatigue amongst youthful generations who view lots of its motion pictures as outdated and retro. learn extra

“Ram Setu” (The Bridge of Lord Ram) and “Thank God” are the 2 predominant Bollywood releases scheduled for subsequent week, each starring actors who’ve confirmed to be a success on the field workplace previously.

Reporting by Shilpa Jamkhandikar in Mumbai and Nivedita Bhattacharjee in Bengaluru; Extra reporting by Praveen Paramasivam; Modifying by Invoice Berkrot

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