Carnival Cinemas eyes over Rs 1,000 cr revenue this fiscal

Multiplex operator Carnival Cinemas is eyeing over Rs 1,000 crore revenue in the current financial year, representing a growth of 25 per cent, a top company official has said.
It had clocked a revenue of Rs 800 crore last fiscal. The company said analysts are predicting its turnover to exceed Rs 1,500 crore in FY 2018-19.
Currently, the company operates over 450 screens in 150 cities and is targeting 1,000 screens by the end of this year.
"We will be adding almost 600 screens. So, by 2018 end we will have 1,000 screens on paper, as (some) maybe operational by 2019. The screens would mostly come in tier II and tier III markets. After that we have a plan for 5,250 screens," Carnival Group Chairman and founder Shrikant Bhasi told PTI here.

He added that most of the screens will be added organically. "Some of the small chains we are talking for acquisition, otherwise majority is going to be organic. Nowadays, closed cinemas are coming forward and we are converting that to two screen or three screen multiplex," he said.
A relatively late entrant in the market, Carnival has scaled its business with acquisitions like 254 screens of Big Cinemas from Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group for an estimated Rs 700 crore, 10 screens from HDIL's Broadway Cinema for about Rs 110 crore and 27 screens of Glitz Cinemas from Stargaze Entertainment for an estimated Rs 90 crore.

Ticket sales account for 63 per cent of the revenues, while food and beverage currently contribute 25 per cent and advertising 12 per cent.

"It is a profit making business but we need to add a lot of other revenue, other than box office. The idea is to increase other revenue like advertising and food, so that profitability is maintained," he said.
The online to offline ticket contribution currently stands at 40:60 and "we want this (online) to reach a level of 70-80 per cent," Bhasi said without specifying the timeline for the same.
The average occupancy rate is 38-40 per cent but the occupancy rates during the weekdays are on a decline, he noted.

"Occupancy rate for the weekday is going down, so that is the reason we came up with MoviEcard (a movie subscription based service). That is picking up and we have already sold 1 million cards. Now our target is to reach 10 million cards, which would take about a year. We have allocated 25 per cent seats to MoviEcard and we are planning to increase it to 50 per cent by end of this year," he said.
To enhance the viewer experience, the company has launched a loyalty programme Carnival Select Lounge.
"We are increasing the number of screens, so it is important to add some facility for customer. That is why we decided to have lounge in almost all the centres, where we are operating.

"First phase is 40 lounges, which we are coming up in 60 days. We will start with Mumbai and Delhi but the idea is to have everywhere. We have the maximum screens in three tier cities, so we want to have this in all the cities," he said.
Carnival operates six screens in Singapore and on the overseas expansion plans, Bhasi said, "we are planning to add another six screens in Singapore and we are in talks with couple of developers. We are also talking to a Middle Eastern chain and Malaysia but nothing is finalised yet".
He was optimistic of having presence in Middle East and Malaysia by the year end.