WHAT THE MULTIPLEXES OUGHT TO DO AFTER THEATRES OPEN ONCE AGAIN IN MAHARASHTRA
Jyothi Venkatesh
The situation today with the restrictions imposed on theatres and closing down theatres all over Maharashtra could not be more ironic. While the film industry is gearing up to release blockbusters, not many theatres will be up and running to screen them! It is estimated that by the end of the second wave of coronavirus, as many as 2,000 screens will shut down permanently, all over India.
Vishek Chauhan, a single screen exhibitor in Bihar, points out to some permanent screen closures this year in his area. One of the oldest in the area, Vasant Cinema (Talkies), in Katihar has decided to close down permanently. Another cinema hall called Prem Talkies, Forbesganj, is not planning to reopen when they get permission to restart. Down south, 70-year old Lakshmi Theatre and Shree Nagaraja theatre in Mysuru have been added to the list of theatres that are winding up operations.Pre-COVID, India had around 9,527 screens out of which there were around 6,327 single-screens and 3,200 multiplexes, according to an EY (Ernst and Young) 2020 report. Last year around 1,000 screens had shut shop permanently. Along with drop in footfalls, another challenge is lower additions of new screens.
According to Karan Taurani, Vice-President, Elara Capital, the impact will be felt more by the regional cinema.This is because 60-65 percent of box office collections for regional films come from single screens. When it comes to the Hindi film industry or Bollywood, the impact on the box office will be minimal, as most of these theatres are low-priced single screens, points out Shailesh Kapoor, CEO, Ormax Media, a media consulting firm.”For Hindi films, more than 70 percent of the box office comes from multiplexes, and contribution of smaller single screens is not sizable to make a larger dent in the earnings,” he explains. However, Chauhan notes that single screens are properties that Bollywood has held on for so long. With these screens going to the wall permanently, he says, Bollywood will lose properties that contribute around Rs 40-50 crore (for a film).Taurani also adds that compensation will not happen anytime soon. “Pre-COVID, if 350-400 single screens were shutting down, 200-250 screens were opened up by multiplexes. Currently, there will be delays in screen openings by multiplexes. So, the additions of new screens will not offset the closures.”
Multiplex operator PVR, which has the highest screen count in India, saw its slowest new screen addition in FY21 – 13.Company’s CFO, Nitin Sood, in an earlier interview with the portal Moneycontrol has gone on record that this was the lowest screen addition by PVR in the last five to seven years.PVR, which saw the shutting down of 16 screens and currently has 842 screens, has suspended capex and fit outs for all other screens until the situation normalizes. The scenario is similar for other multiplex players as well. INOX Leisure’s CEO, Alok Tandon, had pointed out that expansion plans are deferred due to lockdown and with no revenue coming in.
After having remained empty for almost a year and a half, I hope the cinema houses; especially the multiplexes have learnt a valid lesson on their own. The mushrooming of the OTT platform coupled with the lack of good out of the box content films have dented the multiplexes in a big way, especially films like Radhe and Bhoot Police and a film like Bell Bottom which had just patented the earlier pattern of films like Baby and Airlift.
Today you cannot foot the audiences big time like in the past by hiking the admission prices when a new film is releasing like in the past. Nor can you fool them to part with their hard earned money by pricing the tickets steeply. When you can pay just Rs 399 or Rs 999 and make sure that you can see films in Hindi as well as regional languages all through the year on a Amazon Prime Video or Disney Plus Hotstar, who in his sane mind would like to let himself be looted by the multiplexes to the tune of Rs 800 and Rs 900? When the multiplexes start functioning once again after the Maharashtra government allows them, they should emulate the late Chief Minister, Tamil Nadu J. Jayalalitha scheme of taxation and not allow any multiplex to charge a rupee more than Rs 120 per ticket
And not just the admission prices, I have several other issues too with the multiplexes. Like the exorbitant and steep prices of eatables like pop corn and samosas which are being sold at the food counters of the multiplexes blatantly. While you can buy two samosas outside the multiplexes for Rs 20, you are being forced to shell out to the tune of Rs 120 by the multiplexes. You have to buy a large Pepsi for Rs 450. Though bhelpuri, the staple diet of the common man in Mumbai is being sold outside for Rs 30, a multiplex charges you Rs 250 for the same.The big multiplexes like PVR, Cinepolis, Inox etc have been earning a fat sum by way of selling stale samosas prepared in the morning by selling it till late at night and hence they do not want to forego the revenue by experimenting with sale of other items like say Medu Vadas or Batata Vadas by preparing them inside their premises and selling them ‘garma garam’ for the patrons. It was after I complained to the I&B Minister at a FICCI seminar in Mumbai that the multiplexes are looting the patrons by charging four times @Rs 60 per water bottle which they buy for Rs 15 that an order was issued by the government that the patrons should be provided with free water by the owners.
In fact, in conclusion, I’d like to advise the owners of the multiplex chains to start selling tickets in the range of Rs 50, Rs100 and Rs 150 for films which are screened in their premises and it is my guarantee that the sales will be brisk like in the past when people used to buy tickets for Rs 2, Rs 3 and Rs 5 at single screens. I remember way back in the 70’s, I used to get a pocket money of Rs 1 from my father and walk all the way from Worli where I used to stay to Rivoli theater in Matunga to watch Tamil films for just 80 paise, have a samosa for ten paise and also follow it by gulping down my throat coffee for ten paise and after the movie, walk back to my house. What’s more, all the theaters will start displaying the house full boards once again and if the multiplexes start selling food items at reasonable rates, once again they can easily make a kill at the food counters too without any doubt. Or risk losing the patrons who will prefer to stay glued to their homes and watch the latest films on their own OTT platforms.
